Good news! There's no ice cream machine required to follow the recipes in our new energy efficient frozen dessert series (just a little nook in your freezer). Okay, so parfaits, semifreddos, and kulfis aren't technically ice cream. Ice cream purists might prefer to call this family something like frozen aerated creams but homemade frozen aerated cream probably isn't what you had in mind for dessert. Either way, one less thing to buy (ice cream machine) and less energy to burn (churning) means a greener dessert.

Ice cream is churned in a freezer so the custard base gets aerated as it's being frozen. With this recipe you do the aerating bit yourself by whipping heavy cream until it's tripled in volume and then you fold in a little custard base and set it in the freezer. In professional kitchens, chefs will often use gelatin as a stabilizer but at home, and if you're eating it the day you made it (which you should!), there's no need.

The recipe's pretty foolproof if you keep in mind that the base has to be completely chilled before mixing it with the cream or your beautiful aerated cream will deflate and the mousse will freeze too solid. You can chill the base quickly in a metal bowl over ice packed water or you can let it cool a little and then leave it overnight in the fridge. The mix-in (which could be replaced with homemade matzo candy or pocky sticks adds a sweet and salty toffee crunch, just like a traditional brown bread ice cream. Once it's mixed together you can scrape it into individual ramekins but feel free to put it in a deli container and scoop it out like ice cream. I mean, like frozen aerated cream.

INGREDIENTS