Strawberry and Mint Ice Cream

So. Since I made my first ice cream a while ago, I have been thinking of which flavour to try next. Then, the other weekend, we had lots of strawberries and I decided to go for a classic...but with a slight minty twist.

Looking through strawberry ice cream recipes, it seems that most people just chop the berries and stir them in, but I was worried they wouldn't actually flavour the cream that way so I decided to make a compote first. I think this was a good decision. The juices just blend in with the custard and make it pink, but there are still bits of berries in there for texture.

To make the strawberry compote, simply wash and roughly chop the berries and put them in a saucepan on a low heat with a bit of sugar and only a table spoon of water - the berries will soon release a lot of liquid and you don't want it too runny. It takes about 20 minutes to get a good syrupy consistency with soft bits of fruit. Take it off the heat and add some chopped up mint leaves - gorgeous.

I used the same ice cream recipe as before, but instead of infusing with cinnamon I added the fruit compote along with the cream at the end, just before cooling and freezing. This worked really well and tasted great. Seconds please!