About a month ago, a colleague of mine, Mike brought in tubs of mulberries that he had picked freshly off his mulberry bush at home. He couldn’t use them all himself so shared them out amongst everyone at work. Mike said his mulberry bush blossomed for weeks on end and then it would go dormant for the rest of year. I popped a couple of tubs in the freezer for baking with.
I loved the colour of them, so rich and dark. When you peeled the berries from the stem, it squirts out this deep sanguineous shade. I had never had or heard of mulberries before coming to Australia, they remind me of blackberries at home. Picking blackberries is an old tradition in Ireland. As kids we would go down the Coney Island road with a bucket and pick blackberries to our hearts content, coming home and my sister, Liz would make a blackberry pie for all of us. Yum!
As the weather is picking up here in Perth, first day of summer and we’re enjoying a warm 32 degrees. I’m not used to it being so hot at this time of the year. I’m usually wrapped up in a big wooly jumper, hats, gloves and boots, resembling the michelin man and enjoying cuddling up by the fire. Even when I was living in Doha, it was cold, blustery and rainy at this time of year. So, having the sun beaming down on us this December is quite different. We are heading out to get our Christmas tree this weekend too, memories of walking through the Coillte Christmas tree yard at home, again wrapped up like the michelin man, trying to maneuver a ginormous tree into the boot of the car. The biggest and fattest tree we can find always makes it to our house! I’m looking forward to picking it up in the sunshine this year, I can’t wait to have a Christmas tree in our apartment, a few mince pies and some mulled wine and it will be perfect 
Back to the mulberries. The recipe is very simple and the result is a beautiful deep and rich colour with a creamy, sweet taste. I hope you like it….
Ingredients
150 g mulberries – destemmed
1 egg
1 egg yolk
100 g Castor Sugar
350 ml Double Cream
1/2 tspn vanilla essence
Method
Whisk together the egg, egg yolk, vanilla essence and sugar in a mixing bowl over a sauce pan of simmering water until it becomes pale and creamy.
Add in the berries to the egg mixture. You can sieve the berries to remove the pips.
Whisk the double cream until fluffy and has soft peaks.
Fold the cream into the egg and berry mixture, stir to combine.
Tip into a 1 litre container and freeze for at least 8 hours or overnight.
A little tip is to take out the ice-cream and whisk it with a hand blender after 3-4 hours, just to make sure that all the mixture is evenly combined.
Summer treats from down ‘unda
c.a. xx
Lovely fruity looking ice cream. Tempted to get out my ice cream maker and make some creamy delight for Xmas although not sure I’ll be able to get my hands on some fresh mulberries here, even if it’s warmer than most years
Thanks Ailbhe. Can you get blackberries in your neck of the woods? It really is such a nice treat to have in any season
Looks delicious, I love the colour! It must be weird thinking about Christmas in 32 degree heat, but on the plus side it must be so lovely to get that kind of heat, the temps in Ireland barely reached those heights this year!
Thanks Eadaoin
It is odd being in the festive spirit in 34 degrees today! Have my Christmas tunes playing at work. The mulberries are such an amazing fruit, the colour is what attracted me to making ice cream.
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Hi Carolanne,
Mike here. My golly gosh I’ve been immortalised by an ice-cream thanks to you. More Mulberries are yours this October! Hope you are going well. Your blog is great mate. As you know I’m a savoury man but I must say your recipes look great and your passion is evident. Cook on! or should I say bake on !
Cheers Mike
Hey Mike, glad to see you made it here. Your ice cream, believe it or night is my most popular blog post
all good with me, hope you’re keeping well too!!