I was hosting an impromptu dinner party this evening and someone else had promised to bring dessert. I tend to make a lot of strawberry ice cream this time of year, but wasn’t planning on cranking today.

When the promised dessert did not materialise I somehow ended up telling my five guests about the joys of the White Mountain Freezer. They were certainly intrigued, but since I’m from Missouri, just talking is never enough. For some reason, we were also talking about the Show-Me State.

The story goes that in 1899 a Congressman named Willard Duncan Vandiver from Columbia, Missouri (my hometown) was dining at a naval banquet in Philadelphia. Someone at the banquet must have been making some grandiose claims worthy of incredulity, and Vandiver remarked, “I come from a state that raises corn and cotton and cockleburs and Democrats, and frothy eloquence neither convinces me nor satisfies me. I am from Missouri. You have got to show me.”

So in true “show-me” spirit, we quickly procured some double-cream and whipped up a unique batch of ice cream with ingredients I had on hand.

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We recently made a batch of Chocolate Gelato that was to be served to a 12-year-old girl. Knowing that the young ones among us are often less keen on super dark chocolate I reduced the cocoa powder to just 1/4 cup, hoping that would please her. Unfortunately it was still “too chocolatey and not creamy enough”. Fair enough. I take criticism and try to learn from it.

A few months ago my ice cream services were won in a charity raffle, and the winner requested a batch of chocolate ice cream for a kids party today. So I’m trying a new recipe that should be less dark and more creamy and will hopefully please the young’uns. Not wanting to completely eschew our tried and tested Gelato recipe, I’ve made some simple modifications. My experience has shown that adding a pint of double cream to a gelato results in a mixture way too thick to freeze so I got a pint of single cream and I also reduced the cocoa powder right down. Continue reading →

While I insist to not have favourites, this recipe is certainly high on my list.

So when my dad sent me a new one-gallon White Mountain freezer for my birthday, I knew how I had to inaugurate the new machine.

We first made Whisky and Honey Ice Cream when we were cycling in the Outer Hebrides and it was certainly an amazing experience to make and eat it in the Standing Stones of Calanish.

I decided to celebrate by making a big batch of Whisky and Honey Ice Cream that I could keep in the freezer and enjoy over a few days. I soon discovered this is the perfect ice cream for storage.

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The goal of the perfect nut ice cream often seems elusive. Despite various efforts we do not seem to have technology capable of grinding nuts to the creamy texture we desire. Fortunately there is no shortage of smooth and creamy peanut butter available and we were able to make a fabulously rich ice cream. It’s important to get high quality peanut butter without any added salt, sugar, or oils. And also make sure it is super smooth. The first tub we bought was sold as smooth but still had some small chunks.

• 1 large egg
• 1 cup caster sugar
• 250 ml double cream
• 450g smooth peanut butter (no salt and no sugar)
• milk

The preparation was roughly along the lines of our traditional family recipe. Since the peanut butter is already super smooth, you don’t need to do a lot of work. (Apart from the usual cranking!)

The texture was perfectly smooth and creamy and the flavour unbeatable. This recipe comes highly recommended.

My normal feeling is that strawberries are best suited to ice cream and raspberries are best suited to sorbet. This recipe confirmed that for me, but it was still a delicious sorbet. I made this Strawberry Sorbet by request for a friend’s birthday. It’s a simple recipe:

• 800g fresh strawberries puréed
• 410g sugar
• 410ml water
• 1/3 lemon

I made less sugar syrup than normal knowing I did not want this to be too sweet. So I dissolved 410g sugar into 410g water. I mixed the syrup with the puréed and strained strawberries and squeezed in a third of a lemon.

Cranked as usual.

It was delicious, not to sweet, and with great strawberry flavour. Still, I prefer it as an ice cream.

Today is Boxing Day, so it’s a good excuse to sit back, relax, and reminisce about ice cream and sorbet flavours from the past year. Naturally a few slipped through the net on Triple Motion, so I’ll do my best to start catching up.

We made Lime and Basil Sorbet many months ago, and it was a delicious and balanced recipe. Here’s what we used:

• 10 limes
• 1 lemon
• 1 big bunch of basil
• the usual sugar syrup (500g sugar dissolved into 500ml of water)

I juiced the limes and lemon and chopped the basil as finely as I could. We then added the sugar syrup until we had 18º on the Baumé saccharometer.

Easy as that. Just put it in the White Mountain freezer and crank!

The texture and flavour were darn near perfection, if we do say so ourselves…

p.s. this recipe was inspired by a dessert served at The Kitchin in Edinburgh last year.

There was once a dream of the perfect blueberry sorbet. Deliciously intense flavour, luxuriously smooth texture. Purity in frozen decadence.

Strange that this website began with the story of a failed recipe attempt. But Triple Motion is not simply about successes – these are ice cream adventures, experiments with ingredients and flavours, the never-ending quest for frozen indulgence.

So as was promised back in March, we have come back to achieve a blueberry sorbet worthy of the White Mountain itself. In late Summer, the Scottish highlands are swarming with sweet and tasty blaeberries. While resembling a small version of the American blueberry, the European variety (known as bilberries in England and myrtilles in France) are sweeter with a more intense flavour and dark flesh. Naturally, they should make a better sorbet. But the season is short and they’re generally only found in the wild.

After missing last year’s season, we have been anxiously waiting for a blaeberry report, ready to drop everything at a moment’s notice to rush to the hills and start picking and cranking. Finally, Nick mentioned that his housemates had been picking blaeberries near their farmhouse in Fala, about 30 miles south of Edinburgh. I eagerly phoned Big D and insisted he cut his weekend plans short and hightail it to Scotland.
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We recently made a tangy and creamy batch of raspberry ice cream. I’ve gotten into the habit of doing raspberry as a sorbet, so this was an interesting and thoroughly enjoyable return to a recipe I haven’t done in a long time.

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So the Fringe is now pretty much over, and that means no more free ice cream for the foreseeable future…

But we didn’t get away without some praise. “Three Weeks” gave the Lemon Custard Comedy Club a 4-star review. Big up Dee and her comedy minions!

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Back for another helping of ice cream and comedy at the Lemoncustard Comedy Club, we followed on the previous week’s successful chocolate chip cookie dough. I don’t often do chunky style ice creams, but am becoming a big fan.

My friend John was shopping at some obscure Scandinavian furniture shop and had the epiphanic idea to chop up some Daim bars and stir them into a batch of vanilla ice cream. So that’s just what we did…

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