Makes: 1,2 litres
Preparation time: 1 hour, plus freezing time
Cooking time: 25 minutes

• 250ml milk
• 1 vanilla pod or 10ml vanilla extract
• 70ml honey
• 4 large egg yolks
• 70ml (60g) sugar
• 250ml plain Greek yoghurt
• 250ml cream
• 50g toasted almonds, roughly chopped
• toasted flaked almonds and extra honey, to serve

1 Place the milk in a saucepan along with the vanilla pod or extract. Heat gently until the milk starts to steam, but don’t allow it to boil. Remove from the heat and stir in the honey until it has melted. Leave for 10 minutes to infuse, then remove the vanilla pod.

2 Beat the egg yolks and the sugar until light. Stir a little of the warm milk into the egg mixture, then stir into the remaining milk mixture. Cook over a low heat, or pour into a glass bowl and place over a saucepan of simmering water. Stir until the custard is thick enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon. (If you draw your finger across the back of the spoon it should leave a clean trail.)

3 Remove from the heat and cool. Stir in the yoghurt, then refrigerate until very cold.

4 Pour the custard into a two-litre plastic container and put in the freezer until the mixture is slushy and starts to freeze. Remove from the freezer and beat with a whisk to break up the crystals. Return to the freezer for a further 20 to 30 minutes until the mixture starts to freeze again. Remove and whip again, then freeze for a further 30 minutes.

5 Whip the cream until stiff. Remove the custard from the freezer and fold in the cream and nuts until well combined. Spoon back into the container or individual serving bowls, and freeze for a few hours or overnight until firm. Remove from the freezer 30 minutes before serving. Serve drizzled with honey and sprinkled with nuts.

Good ideas
• When making the custard, be sure to heat it very gently. You can use a double boiler or a bowl over simmering water. If you cook it over direct heat, keep the heat low otherwise the custard could easily curdle. If the mixture does curdle, strain it through a sieve.
• It is important to beat the custard once it has started to freeze, to break up the ice crystals and help create a lighter texture. Although this is time consuming, it does produce a lighter, creamy ice cream. Don’t forget about the mixture in the freezer and allow it to freeze too hard – it should be soft enough to whisk.
• If you would like a richer ice cream, use 250ml cream instead of the yoghurt. You can also vary the flavours by using different flavoured yoghurts. Try strawberry or granadilla and leave out the nuts.
• Home-made ice cream freezes solid and is difficult to scoop, but allowing it to soften for 20 to 30 minutes makes serving much easier. Also dip the ice-cream scoop or spoon into hot water before each scoop.

Words and images: Ideas magazine