This easy no churn Blueberry Swirl Ice Cream is ready to freeze in next to no time and is swirled with homemade blueberry jam! Sweet, creamy and delicious, it’s bound to become a new favourite!
Well hello there, long time no see. Apologies for going MIA. We have a lot to catch up on… I also feel kinda bad that I’m dropping in to say I’m going to be taking the rest of the Summer off, as I do every year, but I had this amazing blueberry swirl ice cream recipe to share with you, so I decided to post it anyway.
It seems that the schools here have finally broken up for the holidays and we’ve been having something of a heatwave/month. It’s been absolutely boiling and only getting hotter; tomorrow is meant to be 37C!! I know we get a lot of crappy weather and I don’t want to moan, but it’s too damn hot.
I am a Goldilocks weather person. 22-24C with a cool breeze is just perfect. I don’t dislike the sun, I still want it to be warm-ish, but it’s the breeze I need. Right now, there’s zero breeze. It’s just muggy and stupidly hot. I know to a lot of countries you think this is nothing, but we are not used to this in Britain and our houses are not built for it! We don’t have air con in our houses as standard because most of the time it’s just not worth it!
It also means I have not wanted to turn the oven on at all… that shiny new oven we bought after ours exploded? Not been on in weeks!!!
I’ve not been well for the last month hence why I haven’t been online much. I’ve had another huge flare-up of my back pain, as in it’s as bad as it was in February when I ended up in hospital. I always thought that cold and damp weather affected my arthritis, but someone at work said that muggy weather can affect it too.
It does make sense, because in Paris where it was dry and hot, my back was fine. Here, it’s really hot and humid and I’ve been almost in tears this past week. It hurts to breathe. So yes, I like Goldilocks weather for me, but also for my joints.
It’s so frustrating being trapped in your own body. I’m miles away from my family and when my back is really bad, I can’t drive. I can’t stand up for long, I can’t walk far. I’ve just been going to work, gritting my teeth through the pain and then coming home and collapsing on the sofa. The three days I’m off have been me resting in preparation for work at the weekend. I hate being in this cycle, but I just have to hope that it will end soon and I’ll have another few months of it being OK.
I’ve spent the last few months coming to terms with the fact it won’t actually get better and it is degenerative, so I can only manage it and hope it doesn’t deteriorate too quickly. I’ve had to make a lot of changes to my life and realise that I need to ask for help sometimes because if I struggle through, I’m the only one suffering at the end of the day.
One more thing to catch you up on – I’m getting a new car! It’s actually incredibly bittersweet as I bloody love my little Clio and I wanted to keep her forever. (Yes “her” I am a fully grown adult and I name every car I have – she’s called Luna ;)).
However, to future proof my driving, I need an automatic and my Clio is a manual. I’ve been struggling for months and it’s just got too painful recently. In traffic, in town… whenever I’m having to hover over the clutch or keep pressing it, it’s throwing my back out of line and it hurts so much. Sometimes I get to the end of a shift at work and my toes are numb and I’m like “How the hell am I going to drive home now!?”
So last week we went car shopping and bought a Megane. I would have had a fourth Clio, but they don’t do a petrol automatic, so I had to get the next car up. He’s metallic navy blue and I’ve called him Ludo. We pick him up on Saturday!
When I test drove an auto Megane, it was bliss. I sat there with my body in line and it was a weight off my hip area. It felt so good, I’m really hoping this means I can continue driving for many years to come because driving is one of my favourite things to do.
Anyway, we should really get back to this Blueberry Swirl Ice Cream. It’s so easy to make and you only need a few ingredients to make it! I love no churn ice cream so much as it’s so easy! You just whip double cream until it holds a peak and then add condensed milk. That’s pretty much it for the base.
You could even make this recipe simpler, by buying blueberry jam, meaning it would be ready to freeze in about 10 minutes, but I decided to make my own.
With how hot it’s been in the UK recently, this really is one delicious way to cool down! One day I will invest in an ice cream machine and make proper custard based ice cream, but for now, this no churn version is a doddle to make and tastes divine!
That’s all for today, I hope you all have a wonderful rest of your Summer and enjoy the weather while we have it! I’ll be hoping that my back gets less painful and then Mr AN and I have 2 weeks off work at the end of August, so I’ll be back with new recipes in September. I cannot wait for all things apple, caramel and pumpkin!!
Blueberry Swirl Ice Cream (No Churn)
Ingredients
- For the blueberry jam:
- 2 cups (300g) fresh blueberries
- 1 cup (200g) caster/white sugar
- 2 tbsp water
- 2 tbsp Certo liquid pectin
- For the ice cream:
- 2 cups (480ml) double/heavy cream
- 14 oz (397g) can of condensed milk
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
- Make the blueberry jam first: Place blueberries, sugar, water and Certo into a deep saucepan (the deeper the better as when it's on a rolling boil it will rise!)
- Place over a medium heat and stir to coat all the berries in the sugar. Bring to a rolling boil and continue to cook for 8-10 minutes, stirring occasionally so the mixture doesn't stick to the bottom of the pan.
- After 8-10 minutes, the liquid should have reduced, the blueberries will have burst and be mushy and the mixture should coat the back of a metal spoon.
- Leave to cool for 15 minutes before making the ice cream base: place the double/heavy cream into a large bowl, or the bowl of your stand mixer and beat on medium-high speed until you have stiff peaks. You want to pull your whisk up out of the mixture and have it hold its peak without the tip bending too much.
- Add in the condensed milk and vanilla extract and fold in by hand until everything is well combined.
- Take a 2lb loaf tin and spoon a third of the ice cream mixture into the tin. Spoon a third of the blueberry jam on top and use a skewer to swirl the two together. You want streaks of purple, but not the entire ice cream to be purple.
- Add another third of the ice cream base gently, then repeat with a third of the blueberry jam. Repeat this one more time until you've used all of the ice cream - you may have 1tbsp or so left of the jam, it depends how much you want to use!
- Place in the freezer for at least 6 hours, overnight if possible.
- Serve in bowls with syrup, or in cones with sprinkles and a flake - or just alone! This creamy, sweet ice cream with bursts of intense blueberry jam is perfect alone too!
- Blueberry Swirl Ice Cream will keep in the freezer for one month.
