Rhubarb and ginger crumble ice-cream

Yesterday I made ice-cream for the first time in my life. Having always been scared off by the fact that I don't have an ice-cream maker (and don't want to buy one as it's just another machine to find room for) and people saying it's a faff without one, I was spurred into trying by Delia Smith, of all people.

Well, not actually Delia herself, rather her Summer Collection book which I acquired in a charity shop in Folkestone and which has a whole chapter on ice creams and sorbets. So I bought a large, shallow plastic box to make the ice-cream in, acquired a frightening amount of double cream, and set about producing my very own ice-cream flavour using a jar of rather runny rhubarb and ginger jam, and some leftover crumble crunch that I'd had from a crumble I made a few weeks ago.

Rhubarb and ginger crumble ice-cream

two tubs (approx 560ml) double cream
one jar of rhubarb & ginger jam (or any other type of fruit jam - if it's runny, so much the better!)
leftover crumble crunch* in small pieces

Whisk the double cream until it is thick (but stop before it stands in peaks). Stir in the jam and mix thoroughly. Fold in the crumble crunch and place into a shallow freezer box (mine had a capacity of 3 litres) with a lid on.

Put it in the freezer and set a timer for about 90 minutes. When the timer goes off, take the box out and stir the ice-cream thoroughly again. (It should be part frozen by now, the stirring helps to give it an even consistency although this doesn't seem to be a great problem when you are using just cream). Put it back in a freeze thoroughly.

The only drawback with this recipe is that it sets extremely solidly. About half an hour before you intend to serve it, take the box out of the freezer and put it in the fridge. It should be soft enough to scoop when you need it.

*the crumble crunch was spare from a crumble I made using the recipe in Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's excellent River Cottage Everyday book. As well as 225g plain flour, 200g butter, and 150g caster sugar, the crumble topping includes 75g oatmeal and 75g ground almonds. Once you've rubbed the butter into the flour, mix in the other ingredients and then squeeze bits of the crumble together to make 'lumps' before spreading it on a baking tray and baking at gas mark 5/190C for 20-25 minutes. You can cool it and store in a jar for several weeks to use either as a topping on desserts, or in ice-cream as I did above.