Winter Ices

Kitty loves ice cream! So much so that she created her own Artisan business, La Grotta Ices, making delicious home made ice creams and sorbets. Kitty is keen on sharing her ices with everyone, which is why she is as happy selling from her ice cream van or market stall as she is supplying top London chefs.
Armed with a handful of recipes and bundles of enthusiasm we made vanilla ice cream, seville orange sorbet, lemon granitas, parfait, candito d'uovas (a very rich dish with lots of egg yolks) and accompanying wafer thins, cones, tacos & twirls.

Using good ingredients is key. Kitty uses Calonwen organic milk http://www.calonwen-cymru.com/ The benefit of Kitty being a small scale producer is that everything is freshly made with seasonal local ingredients, so no need for added flavours or preservatives.


Kitty's simple vanilla ice cream recipe:
375ml whole milk
1 vanilla pod
100g granulated sugar
3 egg yolks
250ml whipping cream (or 180ml double cream + 70ml Whole Milk)
Pinch of salt

• Heat (infuse) the milk and split vanilla pod until barely simmering
• Whisk eggs, sugar and salt together until completely combined
• Pour hot milk over yolks in a steady stream whisking constantly and then return the combined mix to your pan.
• Cook over a low heat stirring all the time until the temperature reaches 85c (this is important due to eggs needing to be thoroughly cooked - use a probe to ensure you reach 85 degrees and keep it there for a couple of mins)
• Plunge the pan into an ice bath of cold water and ice, add cream and stir to cool to 10c within 1/2 hr (again - use a temp probe)
• Refrigerate for 4hours (preferably overnight), then strain to remove the vanilla pod and whizz with a stick/immersion blender to emulsify. Then churn - you can use a domestic ice cream churner OR you can create an endothermic reaction* 



An endothermic reaction !



Kenwood Gelato

• Seal your ice cream mixture in a bag and then place in a larger bag filled with 8 parts ice to 2 parts salt - shaking this will solidify your mixture and turn it to ice cream. 

* By adding salt it lowers the freezing point of the ice. The ice then needs to absorb more energy in order to melt and so absorbs the heat from the ingredients.

You can visit Kitty at Maltby Street Market, Tower Bridge alongside Neals Yard Dairy, Monmouth Coffee and a variety of other Artisan producers http://lagrottaices.tumblr.com/