So the sun’s come out! Which is nice. I am actually feeling pretty summery all of a sudden, what with all the seasonal fruit – raspberries, strawberries, peaches – and of course lovely cold ice-cream. In a cone, in a bowl, straight from the tub (I didn’t say that)… it’s the perfect thing on a hot day, and of course the children love the stuff.
I like making sumptuous sauces to drizzle on top of ice-cream, so when Le Creuset asked me if I’d like to try out their new saucepan range, I jumped at the chance. Regular readers will know I am a huge fan of their cast ironware, but I’d never tried their stainless steel pans before. So I used the Le Creuset 3-ply Stainless Steel Sauce Pan to make two ice-cream toppings, which I hope you will like – Butterscotch and Summer Berry. Mmm.
I have to say, the Le Creuset 3-ply Stainless Steel Sauce Pan is brilliant, and has swiftly become my new favourite saucepan – it’s just the right size (not too big, not too small), it conducts heat really well and gives good heat distribution – noticeably better than my standard pans. It’s great for making sauces, making porridge, heating soup etc as you can be sure you won’t get ‘hot spots’ where the middle is hotter than the rest. I really love it as it makes cooking hassle-free! (Big tick.) What’s more – attention, busy mums and dads – you can pour from it one-handed if needs be, as it has an all-round pouring rim. Useful.
I also tested the little Le Creuset sieve, which is just really cute and perfect for the second recipe, below, and the Le Creuset balloon whisk with its smart red handle.
And now for the delicious and oh-so-easy sauces:
Beautiful Butterscotch Sauce
When I made this, my husband said ‘This is completely amazing’ – enough said, really. Admittedly, it’s not the healthiest of things, but a drizzle here and there is such a treat… This is good with vanilla ice-cream (my fave is Yeo Valley) and if you’re organized, with ready weighed-out ingredients, can be made one-handed so you can tend to baby while making a delicious sauce. Oh yes. Just stir and go.
You will need:
25g butter
25g light brown or muscovado sugar
90g golden syrup
1tsp lemon juice
75ml double cream
- Put the butter, sugar and syrup into a smallish pan
- Heat gently, stirring from time to time, until the butter has melted, and keep stirring until it’s beautifully mixed together
- Stir in the lemon juice and the cream and heat gently until simmering
- Serve warm over ice-cream, or allow to cool and serve at room temperature.
Summer Berry Sauce
You can use one type or a mixture of berries for this sauce. Raspberries, strawberries, blueberries – anything goes. Three ingredients and you’re done. You can also drizzle this sauce on pancakes (crêpes). This sauce smells amazing, and tastes equally delicious – like summer in a bowl.
You will need
250g summer berries
2tsp lemon juice
2-3tbsp icing sugar (or you can use caster if that’s all you have)
- Blend the fruit, the lemon juice and the icing sugar in the blender (you may need to add a dash of water to stop it clogging together) until smooth
- Sieve the sauce through a fine mesh sieve to remove the seeds.
- Serve as is, or gently heat in a saucepan.
I hope you enjoy these sauces. Happy cooking, peeps.
You can find the pan here: http://www.lecreuset.co.uk
TOHC xx
Disclaimer: I was sent the Le Creuset 3-Ply Stainless Steel Sauce Pan for free to review on the blog. All opinions are my own.