Angela says: “This sweet balsamic-reduction sauce that is rippled into the ice cream towards the end of its churning is incredibly useful to know about. You could also use it as a sauce for drizzling over ice creams and sorbets (from vanilla or rum and raisin, to fruits such as strawberry, fig or cherry that will marry well with the balsamic). It is also very good as a sauce over roasted fruits, pancakes, brownies and other chocolate desserts.”

Note: if you have a dense balsamic to start with, you don’t need to make a reduction, just use as-is. Tip the bottle – if it coats the sides then use without reducing.

Serves 4

Ingredients

For the balsamic sauce

75ml balsamic vinegar
25g caster sugar or 50ml dense balsamic vinegar

For the vanilla ice cream

4 egg yolks
100g caster sugar
300ml whole milk
150ml double cream
1 vanilla pod

Method

To make the balsamic reduction: put the balsamic and sugar into a small saucepan over a medium heat and stir until the sugar has dissolved. Bring to the boil then let it bubble for 3–5 minutes until the vinegar has reduced to the consistency of a syrup. Set aside to cool before using. It will keep in the fridge for a few days.

For the ice cream, beat together the egg yolks and sugar in a large mixing bowl until thoroughly mixed and becoming lighter in texture.

Pour the milk and cream into a saucepan. Use a knife to split the vanilla pod down its length, then scrape out the seeds and add those to the milk and cream. Put the pod in too and heat until almost – but (crucially) not quite – boiling. Whisk the hot milk mixture into the sugared eggs, little by very little to avoid scrambling the eggs.

Pour it all back into the saucepan and stir over a low heat to make a custard that is thick enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon. Then take it off the heat and pour the whole lot – pod and all – into a bowl or large jug. Cover and chill for at least 6 hours.

Once the ice cream mixture is chilled, remove the vanilla pod then churn the mixture according to the instructions of your ice cream machine. Add the balsamic sauce (or your dense balsamic) when nearly fully churned to achieve a rippled effect. Freeze until ready to serve.

To churn by hand, remove the vanilla pod, then pour the ice cream mixture into a deep baking dish or mixing bowl and freeze for 45 minutes. Give it a vigorous mix with a spatula or whisk and return to the freezer. Repeat at 30-minute intervals until frozen. Add the balsamic sauce (or your dense balsamic) at the last hand-mix.

From The Vinegar Cupboard by Angela Clutton (£26, Bloomsbury), out now

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