Crème fraîche raspberry ice cream with praline cones

Although I have been longing to use the kitchen I really haven’t had much time. I know I always go on about how busy I am, but until the wedding comes and goes it’s only going to get busier.

I have palpitations just thinking about it. 

But there’s no time like the present, my studies are winding down before exams start up so I can spend more time in the kitchen now, guilt-free. Plus I am home alone, with my husband-to-be working in the high seas, so all the whirlwind of food projects in my head make me have something to look forward to when I get home.

To get in the zone I downloaded some cheesy soap operas (guilty pleasure) and set my laptop up in the kitchen to finally get to work with my favourite new ingredient: crème fraîche. This is my heaven: trashy tv in the kitchen. 

I always saw crème fraîche standing next to the double and single creams in the chilled area but due to a fear of the unkown I never picked it up. Then I had a dollop of it served to me on a berry cake, well now I am I am making for lost time. So don’t be surprised if a few more recipes using crème fraîche feature on the blog.

After tasting it for the first time I thought of ice cream, mainly because its tartness reminded me of frozen yoghurt, one of my favourite guilt-free desserts. I am not saying crème fraîche is guilt-free but maybe it is better than its cousin double cream?!?!?!

Anyway who cares about guilt, it’s dessert.

After some research and a coupled failed recipes l went back to basics and decided to make the base of all ice creams: custard. But with crème fraîche.

It paid off.

Crème fraîche raspberry ice cream with praline cones (makes 8-10 scoops)

2 vanilla pods

400ml crème fraîche 

120g sugar

4 egg yolks

300g raspberries

100g almonds

1/2 cup caster sugar

100g white chocolate

1.Blitz the raspberries into a pulp and strain through a sieve to get rid of the seeds

2.Halve the vanilla pods lengthways and scrape out the seeds. Add the pods and the sugar to the cream and bring to a low simmer, stirring until the sugar has dissolved.

3.Meanwhile, whisk the egg yolks in a large bowl then slowly whisk in the hot cream mixture.

4.Pour the mixture through a fine sieve into another bowl and whisk in the vanilla seeds. Pour the mixture into a freezer-proof container. Pour the raspberry pulp and mix with a fork. Freeze for 1 hour.

4. Remove from the freezer and whisk to break down the ice crystals, return to the freezer for another hour then whisk again. Transfer the ice cream to a freezer-proof container with a lid and freeze until firm

5. Finally make the praline to add to the waffle cones. This bit is optional but worth it. Start by quickly tossing the almonds in a hot pan and place them on a baking tray lined with parchment paper

6. Add the 1/2 cup of sugar to a pan with 3 tbsp of water and let it bubble until the sugar darkens into a golden colour. If any sugar crystals get stuck on the sides of the pan use a wet pastry brush to brush them off. Pour the hot sugar over the almonds. Once the praline has cooled break into smaller pieces and blitz it on a food processor.

7. Melt the white chocolate. It will act as a glue. Dip the cones into the melted chocolate and sprinkle the praline over the chocolate.