Rolled strawberry ice cream
Fresh strawberries chopped straight into a cream base on the ice pan — pink rolls with pieces of fruit.
A rolled ice cream stall classic: the strawberries aren’t chopped in advance but on the pan, with the scrapers, right in the mix. Some of them get smeared and turn the mix pink, some stay in pieces. The base is a little smaller so that it fits on the pan together with the fruit.
Type: Rolled ice cream · Servings: 3 · Difficulty: Moderate
Equipment
Ingredients
- 120 g whipping cream 33 %
- 120 g whole milk 3.5 %
- 90 g sweetened condensed milk (sweetened, from a tube or tin)
- 25 g granulated sugar (sucrose)
- 3 g vanilla extract (1 teaspoon)
- 120 g strawberries (about 8 strawberries, quartered)
- 60 g strawberries (for topping or folding in at the end, sliced)
Making the mix
- Whisk the cream, milk and condensed milk (plus the sugar or vanilla, if the recipe has them) until smooth — don’t whip it into a foam; the mix should stay liquid.
- Wash, dry and hull the strawberries and cut them into quarters. Keep them in the fridge.
- Put the mix in the freezer for 30 minutes or in the fridge for at least an hour — the colder it is, the faster it sets on the pan.
Method — Ice pan for rolled ice cream
- Take the ice pan or tray out of the freezer only just before you start and set it on a dry tea towel so it doesn’t slide. Have two flat metal scrapers and all the add-ins ready.
- Pour about a third of the mix (about 130–150 ml) onto the pan. Add a third of the strawberries and chop it right into the mix with the edges of the scrapers until it starts to thicken.
- Quickly spread the mix into a thin, even layer 2–3 mm thick, in a rectangle about as wide as a scraper.
- Let the layer set — 2–5 minutes on a home ice pan. It is ready when the surface stops being glossy and the layer is firm but still flexible.
- Slide a scraper under the edge of the layer at an angle of about 45° and push it firmly away from you — the layer curls into a roll. Transfer the rolls straight into a glass or bowl.
- Return the pan to the freezer for at least 20 minutes until it is cold again, then make the next portion. Keep the mix in the fridge in the meantime.
Professional pans are cooled by a compressor to about −30 °C and a portion is done in 2 minutes. A home ice pan with a cooling gel or a tray from the freezer only reaches about −18 to −20 °C and warms up quickly — hence a small portion, a thin layer and fast work. Freeze the pan according to the manufacturer’s instructions; a tray for at least 12–24 hours in the coldest part of the freezer. On a tray the layer often won’t set on the worktop: in that case spread it out, put the tray back in the freezer for 10–20 minutes and only then roll. Don’t scratch a non-stick surface with a metal scraper.
Total time: 1 h 35 min
Stages
- Preparation
- 10 min
- Cooling
- 30 min
- Processing in the machine
- 15 min
- Freezing
- 40 min
- Total time
- 1 h 35 min
Serving and storage
Put the rolls in a glass, decorate with strawberry slices and serve straight away.
Not for storing — thin rolls stick together, harden and frost over in the freezer. Eat them straight away. Unused liquid mix keeps, covered, in the fridge until the next day.
Tips
- The strawberries must be well dried and cold. Water and fruit juice freeze into hard ice and the layer then cracks when you roll it.
- Out of season, frozen strawberries will do — just let them soften slightly so you can chop them.
- The most common mistake is a thick layer or a pan that isn’t cold enough: the mix then won’t set, and when you start rolling it tears. Better a smaller portion and a thinner layer.
- The mix isn’t cooked, so raw eggs don’t belong in it. Shop-bought cream, milk and condensed milk are all pasteurised.
Why it works
Strawberries are over 90 % water and low in sugar. The more of them there are in the mix, the more free water freezes into ice and the more brittle the layer becomes. That is why fruit makes up only about a quarter of the mix; the rest is the sweet cream base that keeps the rolls pliable.