Raspberry Jelly with White Chocolate Ice Cream

This is a rather sneaky, flashy, little pudding.  Perfect for rounding off Sunday lunch, impressing friends for supper or just tucking into on a drab Wednesday evening.  The sneaky part is the fact that it looks very fancy and complicated and is actually alarmingly simple.  It is also jelly and ice cream, what more need I say...

For the jelly:

300g raspberries

about 350ml apple juice

1sachet powdered gelatine

Raspberries are in season at the moment and this is a fantastic way to give them pride of place and also to do something a bit different with them.  You can do the same thing with any fruit/juice however, or even make stripey jellies with different flavours.  It also makes a very healthy and light pudding...if you omit the ice cream of course.

Jelly de-moulding can be a little traumatic, particularly if you have a shaped mould.  You need serious tactics to out-wit the jelly and prevent disaster.  This method seems to work quite well.
Brush a bowl or jelly mould with sunflower oil and place in the freezer.

Cook the raspberries in 100ml of the apple juice.

Pass through a sieve and then through a muslin and don't over squeeze or this will make the jelly cloudy.

Put the resulting liquid in a jug and top up with apple juice to make 1 pint/570ml.  Heat until just simmering, remove from the heat and sprinkle in the gelatine, stirring until dissolved.  Leave to cool.  When cold, whip the mould out of the freezer, pour the liquid jelly in and place in the fridge for several hours or ideally overnight.  When the jelly is set, fill a bowl or dish larger than your mould with hot water, dip the mould in for a few seconds for metal moulds or longer for glass/ceramic then place a plate on top and quickly turn upside down.  Hold your breath.  Carefully lift off the mould which should come away cleanly as if by magic.
Allow yourself a modest victory dance.

I left my mould in the hot water slightly too long, hence the little jelly sea my fish is swimming in.

For the ice cream:

225ml full fat milk

3/4tsp vanilla extract

3 egg yolks

2oz/50g sugar

6oz/150g white chocolate
150ml double cream

Place the milk in a pan with the vanilla extract and gently bring to simmering point.  Meanwhile whisk the egg yolks with the sugar, whisking until they turn slightly pale.

Whisking all the time (or the eggs will scramble) pour the hot milk in a tiny dribble onto the egg yolks until it is all incorporated.

Place the mixture back in the pan and bring gently to almost simmering, but absolutely don't let it boil.

Keep watching and stirring until it thickens and coats the back of the spoon.

Add the white chocolate broken into pieces and stir until melted.

Leave to cool, stir in the cream, then pour into an ice cream maker and churn until ready.  If you don't have an ice cream maker (get one, ask Father Christmas for one, write it on your birthday list - such a fab investment) pour the ice cream into a deep baking dish and place in the freezer.

After half an hour give it a good stir or blend with a stick blender and return to the freezer.  Repeat until the ice cream is fairly set, probably 2 or 3 hours.  See, boring, go and buy an ice cream maker.

Oh my.  The sweet thickness of the white chocolate ice cream goes perfectly with the slightly sharp raspberry jelly.  A match made in Heaven.