Strawberry Ice Cream

Ingredients

• 500 g Strawberries
• 45 g Caster sugar
• 1 g Vanilla extract
• 1 g Salt
• 5 g Vanilla extract
• 1 g Salt
• 6 g Heavy cream
• 400 g Sweetened condensed milk

Method

Macerate half the strawberries with the caster sugar to draw out their liquid and create a fruit syrup — this is the base of your flavour. Hull and dice the berries into 5 mm pieces. Place half of them in a heavy-bottomed pan with the sugar and cook over medium heat, stirring often. The berries will weep within 3–4 minutes, and the mixture will darken as the sugars caramelise slightly and the fruit breaks down. You're aiming for a jammy consistency that coats the back of a spoon without running off — roughly 8–10 minutes total. The fruit solids will collapse into the liquid entirely. Once the syrup sits glossy and thick, pull it off the heat and stir in the vanilla extract and salt. The salt amplifies the strawberry flavour by suppressing the sense of sweetness slightly. Cool completely; this takes 20 minutes at room temperature or five in the fridge.

Meanwhile, make the no-churn base. Whisk the sweetened condensed milk, heavy cream, remaining vanilla, and salt in a bowl until soft peaks form — roughly two minutes of steady work. The condensed milk's milk solids and sugar already emulsify with the cream, stabilising the aeration that gives the ice cream its texture without an ice-cream machine. This method trades the ice crystal control of churning for simplicity and relies on whipped air to structure the dessert.

Fold the reserved diced strawberries into the whipped base using a rubber spatula, cutting down through the centre and turning the bowl as you go. Be deliberate but not aggressive — overworking collapses the peaks. Transfer to a freezer-safe container and pour the cooled strawberry syrup across the top. Draw a knife or skewer through the mixture once or twice to create a gentle swirl; don't overwork it. Cover and freeze for at least 8 hours. The mixture sets firm enough to scoop cleanly. Serve straight from the freezer — melting point for frozen-desserts this style sits around minus 12°C, so you don't want it warming up on the counter.