Three ingredient ice cream

I know I have been a very  bad blogger lately. Which is why I'm overcompensating and and posting two recipes today. After enjoying the absolutely delish goat's cheese meatballs (or maybe just enjoying big chunks of the amazing goat's cheese on it's own), you need something nice and sweet to finish off the meal in style. And that's where this amazing ice cream comes in. Best Friend made it for our little binging afternoon last weekend, and I instantly fell in love. 


The recipes I appreciate the most are the shortest ones. Recipes that require grocery shopping lists short enough that they don't need to be written down. And if preparation can be done without making a horrible mess in the kitchen, preferably using just one dish, that would be even better. And if the result is something absolutely divine, who am I to judge. Also, as my freezer is currently so small that I can't even dream of fitting an ice cream maker in there, I had given up all hope of ever making home made ice cream. Not so any more! 

And this recipe, Ladies and Gents, is all of those things. And so much more. This is what it's all about, this is one of the few chosen ones that will hopefully remain with me until the day I die (probably from too much sugar, by the way...) The recipe is originally from BBC good food and goes under the name of No churn ice cream, which I found way too humble for this ingenious creation of the ice cream gods

Three ingredient "To die for" ice cream:

1/2 of a 395g can of sweetened condensed milk

600 ml double cream

1 tsp vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste

The howto:

Add all ingredients into a large bowl, and beat with an electric whisk until stiff. Place in the freezer until solid. Grab a spoon, and eat the whole thing straight out of the container before anyone else can lay their dirty paws on this gem of fluffy, creamy goodness.

The verdict:

If someone had served me this, I would have sworn it's some expensive designer vanilla ice cream which costs the shirt off your back and then some. But no. This is something you can whip together in a few minutes with a budget of £2.50. And impress your friends or dinner guests by having slaved away making this amazingly heavenly ice cream from scratch all by your onesies. 

The possibilites are endless. Add Baileys. Or melted chocolate. Or chocolate chips. Or rum soaked raisins. Or white chocolate chips. Or crushed Malteesers. Or fruit or berries. Or cardamom and cinnamon. And apple compote. Or liquorice. Or nuts. Or nut butter. Or whiskey. Or fudge sauce. Or cookie crumbles. Or brownie bits. Or fudge. Or marshmallows. Or any combination of the above. Or all of the above. Or anything else your heart desires.

Incidentally, if you are wondering what that thing is underneath the ice cream in the picture. It's "Better than sex cake". Actually I would say it's "Better than multiple orgasms cake". What you need for it is 500g cookie dough, 500 g brownie batter, a pack of Dominos (or Oreos if you haven't been to Finland lately) and half a can of caramel. In an oven proof tin, spread the cookie dough, top with Dominos/Oreos, add caramel into all those little nooks and crannies, top with brownie batter. Bake until brownie layer is set. Only eat if you can afford lying on the sofa for hours in a sugar induced coma. Great with ice cream. Please beware that the cake is just for true professionals, if you aren't into sugar, and I mean seriously into sugar, don't even attempt that cake. But do attempt the ice cream! I think heaven might be a place where you eat nothing but this ice cream. 

Lemon crumble bars

I've had a bit of an obsession to bake with lemons lately. And when I saw this recipe (on Pinterest, of course), I knew I just had to try it. And it's practically health food. Oats - good for you. Lemon - fruit, one of your five a day. Condensed milk - dairy, good for you, your bones need the calcium. So yes practically health food.


Condensed milk is genius. Just like cans of caramel, I can't keep cans of condensed milk at home. I can just pop one open and eat it with a spoon. Throw in strawberries or raspberries. It's gooey and sugary and nauseating and absolutely delicious. Let's just ignore that a can contains pretty much my daily calorie allowance. I also love crumble, so all these oat-y, crumbly things are right down my alley. And I think there are endless variations for these bars, replace lemon with berries or fruit, add cardamom or cinnamon or heck, go crazy and add both. I bet you could mix up small pieces of cardboard in the evaporated milk and this would still be awesome. 


The recipe is stolen pretty much unaltered (apart from the addition of vanilla sugar) from GroupRecipes.


Lemon bars (16 servings):
1 can (395g) sweetened condensed milk
3 teaspoons grated lemon zest
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice


185g (1 1/4 cup) flour

95g (1 cup) oats

100g (1/2 cup) light muscovado sugar

100g (1/2 cup) butter (slightly softened) 
2 tsp vanilla sugar

1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

The howto:
Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Mix condensed milk with lemon zest and fresh lemon juice. The mixture will thicken a bit. Mix the rest of the ingredients in another bowl. Press half of the crumbly mixture into a square (approximately 20x20 cm) baking tin, and bake for about 10 minutes. Spoon on the condensed milk and lemon mixture, and crumble the rest of the oat mix on top. Bake for another 15-20 minutes. Let cool, and cut into 4x4 squares.

The verdict:
In case you didn't catch my enthusiasm from the intro, I loved these bars. To be honest, I particularly loved the mixture of condensed milk and lemon. I'm thinking that could make a perfect dip for strawberries or biscuits as is. And this ended up being a problem, because I sampled the mixture quite a bit before the crust was baked, so the filling layer of the bars turned out a bit too thin to my tastes. And that might be why the bars turned out to be just a tad dry. Next time I might throw in a can and a half, so that there is enough to make a really thick layer and there would be some extra to spoon straight into my mouth. Also, I could have reduced the second cooking time a few minutes, now I baked the bars for 20 minutes, but I think 15 would be enough. If you can manage to wait, the bars tasted best when completely cooled (eaten pretty much straight out of the fridge). I made these for a friend, but ended up sampling pretty much half the batch myself. I just had to make sure they were up to standards to feed to someone else. And yes, they were.