Earl Grey Tea Ice-Cream

Outside of the ICA classes and demonstrations, there is a wealth of knowledge you can tap into just through conversation. I recently bought an ice-cream machine and was talking about it with some Wicklow ICA members - I was given so many tips and recipes, I had to take out a pen and notepad. One of my favourites is the tea ice-cream, in particular the earl grey recipe, which I made recently for Sunday desert.

Here’s how I got on…

For this recipe I used…

480ml milk, 480ml cream, loose tea (about four tea bags worth), 5 egg yokes, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, and 200g of sugar. This made two containers of ice-cream, one large and one small.

Keep in mind the quantity of ice-cream that you need and the capacity of the ice-cream maker and alter the recipe.

Combine the cream, milk, and vanilla in a saucepan over heat and bring the mix to a simmer. Remove it from the heat and add the tea, leave this for 5-10 minutes.

Wisk together the eggs and the sugar in a separate bowl until they’re light yellow. Remove the tea and pour the saucepan in with the sugar and eggs, stirring constantly. 

Pour the mix back in the saucepan and place back over heat, stirring constantly until the mixture thickens and coats the back of the spoon.

Place the mix into the fridge overnight to completely cool before you place it into the ice-cream machine.

One of the problems I was having with the ice-cream machine is that it never got the consistency of the ice-cream right for me when serving. I was advised to take it out of the machine when it was a thick milkshake or melted ice-cream consistency and place it in the freezer, and then serve it after a few hours. I don’t know why I never thought of this but it worked perfectly!

This ice-cream is creamy and refreshing, great with or without toppings. If you’re a tea fan you can switch out the earl grey and go crazy with all the different tea flavours that are available. Don’t forget to let me know how they work out!

For more information on classes, or ICA books and advice contact the ICA at admin@ica.ie, 01 668000 or An Grianán at admin@an-grianan.ie, 041 982 2119

Tissue Art 2

With it being a year this month since I started this blog I decided to revisit one of my original posts, tissue art, and give it a try at home with a little twist. I realised that over the past year I had collected a vast amount of decorated napkins so I had a lot of choice for my design.

Here’s how I got on...

I loved the background of my pot but hated my choice of purple birds for the foreground to match the purple orchid flowers. This was easily fixed because the glue was still wet, and they were easy to remove.

My second choice was much better and still complemented the purple orchid's.

If you love to revamp things inside your house tissue art is the way to go. It’s a cheap and easy way to give things a new look from frames, to candles and flower pots. You can easily create your own art piece on a canvas. Pieces can also be glazed and varnished to your liking to create a waterproof or glossy look and finish.

For more information on classes, or ICA books and advice contact the ICA at admin@ica.ie, 01 668000 or An Grianán at admin@an-grianan.ie, 041 982 2119