I told you yesterday that London is hotter than Ibiza, yadda yadda yadda. I’m not complaining, hell no. Been waiting to feel this blow of warm air as I exit any building for too long now. I’m so starved of proper summertime that I am seriously contemplating a move Down Under just for the guarantee of (some) vitamin D all year round.

Another reason to be thankful for the heatwave? Gives me both incentive to make ice-cream as well as ample opportunity to eat it. The blackberry blackcurrant pavlova ice-cream recipe below is, no joke, best I’ve made at home so far and close, if not equal, to some of the best ice-creams I’ve had even in dairy heavens of Cornwall or Italy.

One of the things I think I got super right with this recipe is choosing a great base vanilla ice-cream. You can’t go wrong with one of the greats, so I made a few small tweaks to a David Lebovitz recipe. Using a good quality, ready made jam gave it just the right proportion of sweetness that isn’t canceled by the freeze and it saved some time too. Layering meringue, jam and vanilla ice-cream also gives the nicest ripples and chunks of everything in a scone – beautiful, nirvana-like ice-cream.

For the base, you’ll need:
(adapted from Perfect Scoop, by David Lebovitz)
500ml double cream
250ml full fat milk
120g granulated sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla bean paste
5 egg yolks
one pinch of salt

Place milk, double cream, sugar, vanilla bean paste and salt into a saucepan.
Bring to a simmer over medium heat.
Separately, whisk the egg yolks in a small bowl.
Remove milk and cream mixture from heat.
Pour some hot milk into the eggs – about 10 tablespoons – and whisk well.
Return to saucepan, mix well to combine.
Return saucepan to heat and stir constantly until mixture reaches custard consistency.
Pour through a sieve into a large bowl.
Place bowl in an ice bath and leave to cool to room temperature.
Chill in the fridge for a few hours or overnight. Alternatively, place in freezer for 2 hours.
Churn in ice cream maker, according to your machine’s instructions. Mine takes 25 minutes.

For meringue, you’ll need:
(adapted from Meringue Girls)
3 egg whites (leftover from above ice cream)
double the weight of egg whites in granulated sugar, i.e. my egg whites weighed 120g, so I used 240g sugar
one pinch of salt

Preheat oven at 100C.
Weigh the egg whites in the bowl of a stand mixer.
Beat egg whites on medium speed for 1 minute, then increase speed and carry on whisking until stiff.
Separately, weigh double the weight of the egg whites in granulated sugar. Mix with a pinch of salt.
Add sugar to egg whites, one tablespoon at a time, incorporating well before adding the next tablespoon.
Continue whisking for 5 minutes, after the sugar has been incorporated. The meringue should be stiff and glossy.
Layer a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Spread the meringue on the paper, then place in oven and bake for approx 2 hours.
Leave to cool in oven for a few hours, or overnight.

You can make a quick fruit jam to round up the recipe, or you can do what I did and use a good quality preserve – I had a blackberry and blackcurrant jam leftover from our May trip to France, so I sacrificed it for this
recipe. I’m so not sorry. You can find similar in supermarkets.

To assemble ice-cream, crumble meringue on the bottom of a freezer safe tub. Dot small dollops of jam, then spoon a layer of ice-cream on top. Continue to alternate layers, finishing with a last sprinkling of jam. Cover and freeze for upwards of 4 hours. I usually give it a day in the freezer to get scoop-able, cone-worthy, droolific ice-cream. Serve with more jammy goodness on top and a little mint. Repeat. Now isn’t that the best way to get through the heatwave?

Oh – the good folks at Food52 also published a great collection of tips on how to get perfect ice-cream at home today. If you’re looking for advice, make sure to check this out!