summer – Bake with Andrea

Making ice cream is one of those things that have always felt so mysterious to me. I never knew that you could make it at home as it seemed like such a complex, fancy thing! Like something that only a professional would know how to make. Then I saw some videos on how to make it and I realised that it’s just frozen custard! The hardest thing is committing to buying an ice cream maker – the rest is easy!

Nowadays you’ll find that there are lots of recipes online for “no-churn ice cream” and “3 ingredient ice cream” and stuff like that. I definitely think there’s a place for all of those – I’ve tried and loved them myself, they’re super easy to make and they do scratch that itch in a pinch. Particularly if you don’t have an ice cream machine – which let’s face it, it’s not a necessity is it. But in my honest opinion these recipes are no competition to a good ol’ classic ice cream made in an ice cream machine. It’s just so rich and flavourful and when you make it at home you can customise it in whichever way you want! It’s so much fun and so rewarding when you get to enjoy the final product!

If you’ve got a stand mixer like I do (I have the KitchenAid) and you’ve been thinking of buying an ice cream machine, I’d really recommend getting the attachment. It’s not that expensive, it’s really easy to use and it’s super convenient. Also, considering the size of other ice cream machines in the market, it doesn’t actually take up that much space which is great.

If you’ve been thinking about making your own ice cream but have been too intimidated to do so – please give it a try! I hope that you see how easy it is to make and you give it a chance. I promise it’s worth it. Let me show you!

Ingredients:

5 egg yolks
1 1/2 cup heavy cream (or whipping cream)
3 cups milk
1/2 cup sugar
- This is the amount I normally put, I don’t like my ice cream too sweet but if you like it a bit sweeter, maybe use 1/3 cup instead
One vanilla bean

How to make it:

Cut your vanilla bean in half lengthwise and scrape off all the little seeds

In a pot, add your heavy cream, milk and vanilla bean with all the seeds you just scraped off

Turn on your stove on a low-medium heat and stir your creamy mixture occasionally. Keep it going until it starts to simmer (don’t let it come to a boil!). You just want it to be warm enough to have a few small bubbles around the edges but nothing more than that.
Once your mixture comes to temperature, turn off the heat and cover it with a lid. Set it aside for a bit so that your vanilla has a chance to steep (and get maximum vanilla flavor!).

While your vanilla is steeping, mix your egg yolks and sugar and whisk them together until they’re even in texture and the color is slightly lighter.

After a few min of the vanilla steeping (you can leave it for as long as you like – the longer the better!) we need to temper the eggs. This basically means that we can’t mix cold eggs with hot cream or else your eggs will scramble, so we need to bring them up to temperature slowly. In order to do this, ladle your cream mixture into your egg mixture slowly (one ladle at a time) whilst mixing.

Once you’ve added a few ladlefuls onto your egg mixture and it’s all looking well incorporated (you don’t need to add all the cream, maybe half of it or so is enough), return the whole mixture back to your pot and turn the heat back up to medium heat.

At this point, you want to keep stirring most of the time. Again, you don’t want the mixture to come up to a boil but you do want it to warm up to a gentle simmer. Make sure to keep stirring – otherwise it’ll stick to the bottom and the whole thing can get ruined.

You’ll know it’s ready when your mixture thickens but also, when you stir with a wooden spoon and then run a finger through the back of your spoon – if the sides don’t join back and the line you’ve drawn stays in place, your mixture is done. This is what “coating the back of a spoon” means (in case you ever see that description).

Once your custard is done, put it in a clean bowl but pass it through a sieve (to catch your vanilla bean and any other bits that you may not want in your final product, like bits of egg or whatever).

Cover your custard with cling film – make sure it’s actually touching your custard so it doesn’t form a skin – and pop it in the fridge to cool down completely. I usually leave it overnight.

Once your custard is nice and cold, put it in your ice cream machine and let it churn for about 30min, until it’s nicely frozen and it has significantly grown in volume.
- Every ice cream machine is a bit different so use yours accordingly. Mine is the KitchenAid attachment and it usually takes about 30 min to form into ice cream.

You can eat it right away but it’s probably a bit too soft still. Put your ice cream in a freezer-safe container (I use a tupper) and let it finish freezing for a couple of hours or so.

Serve whichever way you like best – we’re huge fans of ice cream cones over here so we just like to scoop it onto a cone and dig in!

And that’s it! Isn’t that actually super easy? There’s a bit of waiting involved but apart from that the only thing you need to be mindful of is not messing up your eggyolks – just like when you’re making custard. As long as you’re patient and gentle and just pay attention to what you’re making, this recipe is pretty bulletproof! I’d say that it’s light and creamy and not at all sickly sweet. Like I said, I don’t like ice cream that’s too sweet so I don’t put a lot of sugar in mine but if you find this not sweet enough, just add a bit more.

I really hope you give this recipe a try and love it as much as we do! It’s one of those great basic recipes that if you master you can really customise however you like and make whichever kind of ice cream you like! If you’re interested in seeing more options do let me know and I’ll post them for you. And as always, thanks for visiting and I hope to see you again soon!

Happy sunny days everyone! As soon as the weather starts to get better, the days get longer and we start spending more time outdoors, I start to crave paella – particularly when spending time with friends. It’s so convenient! It takes a bit of time to prep but then it comes together fairly quickly and you can really feed a crowd in the same amount of time as it would take you to feed a couple of people!

Now, let me be clear: I have not grown up in Valencia and therefore to all purists out there this is technically not paella but for the rest of us regular humans – I think you’ll enjoy it! I live in the UK so I use ingredients I find at the store, but if you want to go the extra mile and buy the rice, saffron, paprika powder and all the other things from Spain – please be my guest! It still won’t be real paella unless you’re making it in Valencia.

With that being said, I this recipe is yummy! I tend to make it with meat most of the time because 1. who doesn’t love chorizo and 2. not everyone loves seafood! But if you’re interested in seeing different variations let me know and I’ll show you! The basics are the same but there are a few variations, particularly when cooking with seafood. Also, you can leave the meat out altogether (but why would you?!) and just add some more veggies, plus use veggie stock to keep it completely veggie. Super versatile!

So if you want to learn how to make a basic chorizo and chicken paella let me show you what you need and how to make it so that you can enjoy it all summer long!

Ingredients:

400g chicken
1 red pepper
1 onion
3-4 cloves of garlic
250g chorizo
400g short grain rice
1 tsp paprika powder
2 tbsp tomato sauce (or 1 tbsp tomato paste)
130ml white wine
Pinch of saffron
1.2L chicken stock (or stock cube)
120g frozen peas
Bunch of parsley
(Optional) 1 lemon
Olive oil, salt and pepper to taste

How to make it:

First, prepare your liquids:
- Break apart the strands of saffron with your fingers and put them in a small amount of boiling water (about 50ml)
- If you’re using a stock cube, dissolve it in boiling water (1.2L) at this point. If using stock, go to the next step!

Then, chop up all your main ingredients – your chicken, pepper, onion, garlic and chorizo
In a large pan (or ideally a paella pan) drizzle some olive oil and turn on your stove on high heat. Once it’s hot, fry up your chicken just until it gets some nice color. Season it with salt and pepper.
- The chicken doesn’t need to be fully cooked at this point, we just want to give it some color.

When your chicken looks nicely golden, take it off the heat and set it aside.
If you need to, add a bit more oil and put the onion and pepper on the pan to fry them up. Again, we want some color to develop. Season with salt and pepper.

Once your veggies are looking nicely colored, add your garlic and chorizo and fry for another couple of minutes, until the garlic becomes fragrant and your chorizo starts to release some of its oils.

At this point, add in your paprika and tomato sauce (or paste) and stir it all together until it looks even in color.

Add in your rice and fry it up together with everything else for a minute or two until it all looks fairly uniform in color and your rice is starting to get a bit toasty.

At this point, add your wine and stir it all together until it’s pretty much evaporated completely.

Once you’ve cooked off your wine, add in your saffron and your stock, pop your chicken back in and mix everything well until it looks even.

This is important: put enough heat on your pan so that it boils gently (don’t want a rolling boil here) and LEAVE IT. Do not touch this anymore.
While your rice cooks, it’s a good time to chop up your parsley as fine as you want, and cut your lemon into wedges (if using it).

After about 15-20 min your water should be mostly gone – now you can touch your rice! Give it a gentle stir and try it.
- If it’s cooked – jump to the next step.
- If it still has a little bite to it, add in some more water (ideally hot), mix it gently and back off again, until the water is almost gone. Then repeat.

If your rice is cooked, add in your peas and mix them all through one last time. Keep going on a low heat until all your water is gone.

This is the other important part: once your rice is cooked and your water is gone, crank the heat up to high and listen to it.
- Give it a couple of minutes or so – you should hear it sizzling. You want to lightly toast (not quite burn!) the bottom bit of your paella but here’s where it all can go wrong.
- After a couple of minutes grab a spoon and gently lift some rice from the side of your pan. This should give you an idea of what’s going on at the bottom.

When you’re happy with your socarrat, turn off the heat and LET YOUR RICE REST. This is the last important thing here. It makes a huge difference!
- It’s a good time to plop your lemon wedges on there and bring it to the table. Hopefully by the time you dig in it’s had enough time! 5-10 min should do the trick.

And that’s it – a delicious homemade paella for you and your family to enjoy!!

Top tips:

Sometimes it’s hard to tell just how much water you’ll need. It really depends on so many things! I like to start with 1.2L for the 400g of rice and just take it from there. I usually have some boiled water on the side so I can add some extra in and just keep cooking it. Just make sure to only stir when the water is pretty much gone!
This recipe is super easy to multiply – as a general rule, I calculate about 100g of rice per person, depending on sides and other foods. This paella makes enough for 4-6 people.
On this recipe I’ve used chicken breast as it’s what I had at home but actually, chicken thighs tend to work better. They are super flavourful and it’s nearly impossible to overcook them, particularly when making something in water! It’s definitely the better idea here.
If you want to skip the chicken altogether that’s also fine – just add more chorizo or veggies. Traditionally it’s made with rabbit so you’re also welcome to use that instead.
Remember when you cook anything to keep seasoning every layer of your dish! That’s how you get well-balanced dishes. It’s crucial and not any different in this situation.
If you don’t like wine, don’t worry – you can’t taste it here! It just adds a bit more depth of flavour and it’s another way to season your rice. If you’re worried about the alcohol, don’t be – it evaporates pretty much completely. If you really don’t want to use it though that’s also fine.

And that’s it! The most time-consuming part of making paella is the prep – particularly chopping up all the veggies and the meat. But apart from that it’s so easy and simple! And whether you’re making it for 2 or 8 people it pretty much takes the same amount of time which is also great when it comes to entertaining.

As I said before, it’s not technically a traditional real paella but for most people I think it does the trick! It’s yummy and flavourful and perfect to feed a crowd on a beautiful summer day!

I really hope that you give it a try and love it and as always, thanks for tuning in and supporting me! I really appreciate it and love to hear from you – what do you think? What do you want to see next?

Have a great start of the sunny season everyone and see you again soon!