Bird's Custard ice cream
It's like the 80s but BETTER
Several years ago, I co-ran an ice cream start-up called Mr Hippy. It folded in 2020 during the Covid-19 lockdown. I will write about that soon…but in the meantime, my unrelenting love affair with ice cream continues. I just co-hosted a supperclub fundraiser dinner for South Norwood Community Kitchen with the 1977 Mike Leigh film ‘Abigail’s Party’ as its theme, and we served cheese-and-pineapple skewers, prawn cocktail lettuce boats, vol au vents and all manner of 1970s/1980s party food. I made an ice cream that sums up the 1980s for me in all its lurid glory - Bird’s Custard flavour. Such a UK flavour. It forms part of my memories of weird smells of my school - the gym hall plimsole aroma, the humid corridors smelling of bleach, piss and school lunches, the really strong fug of cigs and Maxwell House instant coffee emanating from the staff room every break time. It’s my ‘Proustian madeleine’ response, every time I eat Bird’s.
Back to the present day; just to add to the drama and tension of the supperclub preparations, all my bottles of elderflower cordial intended for the welcome drink for guests exploded in a shower of glass shards and syrup all over our kitchen, and our freezer did its annual thing of breaking down during a short burst of warm weather. I had to scurry between two different neighbours’ freezers with my ice cream drum and mixture, and by the skin of my teeth, this ice cream was born!
You won’t believe it, but you make it in the microwave. I’m actually a huge fan of microwaves - once a nutritionist emailed me, practically screaming, that “microwaves are LETHAL for the lining of your gut!!!” but I actually don’t find any harm has been done, and that they are brilliant for scrambling eggs, heating milk for coffee, and now…making a custard base for ice cream! No faffing about using a bain marie. Need convincing? This podcast from New York chef legend David Chang might convince you…
The recipe is adapted from the ice cream bible ‘Ice Creams, Sorbets and Gelati’ by Caroline and Robin Weir. There’s no way I had time to invent this recipe myself - but I have tweaked it a bit. The creaminess is next level. The cornflour in the custard powder does something magical.
Bird’s Custard ice cream
Makes approx 1.1 litres
You will need:
3 tbsp Bird’s Custard powder
150g caster sugar
500ml full fat milk
500ml double cream, chilled in the fridge
A big bowl filled with cold water and ice cubes
Get a pyrex / microwaveable jug and mix the custard powder and the sugar together in it. Add a little of the milk to make a thin paste, then add the rest of the milk, stirring well. Microwave it at 900W for 2.5 minutes. Take the jug out and whisk for 10 seconds. Then repeat - 2.5 minutes at 900W. Beat it again. Then plunge the jug into the bowl of cold iced water to chill the custard down. Then refrigerate until completely cool - around 5/6 degrees. Then when you’re ready to freeze it, whisk in all the chilled double cream. Then either put the mixture into an ice cream machine for churning, or directly into a tub - pour the mix into a plastic tub and freeze it, no need to stir.
Goes brilliantly with a slab of pineapple upside-down cake (I used Nigella’s recipe) and some buttery salted caramel sauce made with pineapple juice from the tin!
