A traditional staple, this is a great treat to make at home. All you need is your ice cream of choice (although vanilla, chocolate and strawberry is the classic selection), whipped cream, sauces and chopped nuts (or whatever else you want to use as a topping) and a banana, which can count as one of your five-a-day.
It’s very simple to prepare, as all you have to do is slice the banana in half lengthways, put some scoops of ice cream between the two halves, then add as little or as much topping as you please.
Peach Melba
Named in honour of Australian opera singer Nellie Melba, this fruit-based chilly treat is believed to have been invented in either 1892 or 1893 at the Savoy hotel in London. It consists of peaches (naturally), strawberry sauce and vanilla ice cream, and is a deliciously understated way to enjoy ice cream.
Baked Alaska
While the word “baked” and ice cream rarely managed to coexist at all, baked Alaska is a glorious exception to this rule, even if it may seem counterintuitive to put ice cream in the oven. The meringue topping and sponge cake base are such good insulators that the ice cream will not defrost - provided it isn’t left in for too long.
Knickerbocker glory
This is a great treat to share with children. Generations have been promised the chance to have this iconic ice cream sundae since its invention in the 1930s, provided they are able to pronounce it correctly, so why not keep the tradition alive?
Ice cream sandwich
Another long-established fixture of British summers, the ice cream sandwich can be as simple or elaborate as you like, provided it retains its main feature of a scoop (or scoops) of ice cream held between two non-frozen items (the ‘bread’ of the sandwich). Vanilla ice cream and two wafer biscuits are traditional, but don’t let that stop you from creating the extravagant ice cream sandwich of your dreams.
Biscuit bowls
This may take a little more preparation, but the results can be truly spectacular. Using your favourite biscuit recipe (chocolate chip cookies work particularly well), turn a cupcake baking tray upside down, then use the indentations to mould your bowls around (don’t forget to grease first!), before baking as normal.
Once the bowls are baked and cooled, use them as a delightfully delicious way to serve up scoops of ice cream.
Ice cream milkshake
An ice cream milkshake can be the perfect refreshment on a hot summer day, or even just to celebrate the first warm day of spring. There has been a recent fashion for dedicated parlours that will blend up ice cream and milk with almost any other sweet treat you can think of, so you should be spoiled for choice!
© Axonn 2015