Can I Use An Alternative To Fresh Blackcurrants For The No-Churn Blackcurrant Ice Cream?

Our answer

Nigella's No-Churn Blackcurrant Ice Cream With Liquorice Ripple (from SIMPLY NIGELLA) is made by mixing sweetened condensed milk with double (heavy or whipping) cream with blackcurrants that have been cooked briefly until soft. The recipe calls for fresh blackcurrants, though frozen blackcurrants would also work well.

We have not come across tinned or canned blackcurrants before and we do wonder whether this is a "pie filling" rather than just canned fruit. If it is canned fruit in juice (unsweetened) then you could probably use 150g (about ¾ cup) of the fruit and juice from the can. If it is sweetened then you would need to add a good squeeze of lemon juice to sharpen the fruit mixture, as adding a sweetened mixture to the condensed milk could make the overall ice cream a little too sweet. Roughly crush the fruit in a bowl, add the condensed milk and continue with the recipe. If it is a "pie filling" we suspect that it may not be suitable as these products usually contain a lot of sugar and thickeners and we are not sure how these may affect the ice cream.