Timing has never been my strong point, but this week, as the sun shone down over Wimbledon, I was lent an awesome, super-luxe ice-cream maker. It’s the sort that churns and chills at the same time, meaning that wonderful ice cream has been ready to eat every half hour, turning my kitchen into an ice-cream parlour. The downside of this impressive bit of kitchen kit is that, although neatly designed, it takes up a big chunk of work-space and it is so pricey that I would need to make a lot of ice cream before it became cost-effective.

I normally use one of those bowl-and-paddle machines. It packs away in a drawer, but the bowl has to be frozen for 24 hours before use and can cope with making only one batch at a time. If I had room in my freezer, I’d keep it there permanently.

There are two basic ways to make ice cream. One involves a pukka egg-and-cream custard, and the other is made with sugar, milk and cream. There are all sorts of variations on those two themes. Some people swear by single cream, others like whipping cream and yoghurt is the “healthy” option.

The most superior ice cream, the sort you get at serious restaurants, is made from a base of vanilla-flavoured cream, or a mixture of cream and whole milk, sugar and an indecent number of egg yolks. The custard is cooled, then chilled before churning and when it’s almost ready — when it’s thick in a sloppy, Mr Whippy kind of way — the flavouring is added. This could be anything from honeycomb chips to fresh, frozen or sugar-poached fruit. It could even be lemon curd from the larder.

Ice-cream recipes

• Vanilla ice cream

• Strawberry ice cream (without a machine)

• Rhubarb and clotted cream ice cream

• Mango, lime and passion fruit dairy ice cream

Britain's best sorbet and ice cream

Seasonal fruit makes delicious sorbet and ice-cream at this time of year

This ice cream is rich and luscious with an almost chewy texture that stretches seductively over the tongue. I’ve often thought that top-quality, store-bought fresh custard could be used as an ice-cream base and I’ve finally proved my theory right. The texture and flavour is second best to the real McCoy, but who will be doing comparisons?

The other so-called dairy ice cream is cornet ice cream and, by comparison, it is a breeze to make. It can be varied by using part milk or all yoghurt, by getting particular with the type of cream and using classy sugar such as distinctively flavoured coconut palm sugar.

Flavourings for both types of ice cream are as infinite as your imagination, but Morfudd Richards’s delightful new book, Lola’s Ice Creams & Sundaes: Iced Delights for all Seasons (Ebury, £20), is a treasure trove of ideas.

Before I bought my little freeze-and-churn ice-cream maker, I used to make ice cream by hand. It’s laborious, time-consuming and not recommended, but the results taste good and at least you know what you are eating.

If you have space to store it and you love ice cream, take a look at Cuisinart’s Professional Ice Cream Maker. It’s not cheap at £279 but it will help to keep you cool while watching Wimbledon.

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