Easy freezy: eight fruity recipes for frozen summer treats – no ice-cream maker required
When the weather is hot and midsummer’s bounty of berries, stone fruit, melons and bananas need a life after the fruit bowl, these frozen desserts are just a quick blitz away.Who needs an ice-cream machine when granita, sorbet and ice blocks can be devised with a swift spin in a blender and a few hours of chill in the freezer? Many of these recipes can be prepared in under 15 minutes, leaving more time for summer’s ultimate pastime: doing nothing at all.(Pictured above)Tell the kids they’re getting ice-cream for breakfast.Then unsheathe the ice-block mould to reveal Liam Charles’ nutritional Trojan horse – an early morning hit of fibre (oats), calcium (yoghurt) and antioxidants (berries).Lemon zest gives zing to the sweetness, while berries can be substituted for any fruit you have on hand – think banana, mango or pineapple.
Perched in a small glass as the meal’s closing act, Ben Tish’s take on the Sicilian shaved ice dessert has an elegant simplicity and just four ingredients: strawberries, lemon juice, water and caster sugar.The best part of the preparation? Using your fork to stir and scrape the frozen mixture into a mound of ice crystals.Graduate to Yotam Ottolenghi’s more complex granita recipes, which make use of poached peaches, or rockmelon with lime and tequila.This treat, according to Ravneet Gill, “sings of summertime”.Ripe roasted peaches and raspberry sauce star in the pastry chef’s take on this retro dessert, which was created in London in the late 1800s by French chef Auguste Escoffier in honour of Australian operatic soprano Nellie Melba.
Gill’s recipe eschews traditional vanilla ice-cream as its base for a version that is blitzed through with tinned peach puree to intensify the peachiness.Another healthy hit with children – or a creamy, guilt-free dessert for adults.Tom Hunt gives a second life to overripe fruit by chopping it up, popping it in the freezer, then blending it with plain yoghurt to create a soft-serve-like tutti frutti sorbet.Add your favourite toppings – think grated chocolate, toasted coconut flakes or pieces of crunchy macadamia nuts.Frozen banana has the texture and sweetness of ice-cream, and in chef Marc Grossman’s easy vegan recipe, frozen banana halves are dipped in a rich melted dark chocolate mixture then sprinkled with crunchy toppings.
Tip: save your sticks from store-bought ice-cream or coffee stirrers to make these at home.Cookbook author Benjamina Ebuehi’s take on the Italian frozen mousse marries mango with the salty-sour spice of Mexico.Layers of freshly chopped mango, zesty cream and whipped sweetened egg whites fill a loaf tin.Then, as the final act before the frozen “semi-cold” rectangle is sliced and served, the semifreddo is dusted generously with Tajín – a ready-made mix of chilli peppers, lime and salt that Mexicans love sprinkled over mango as a street snack.For another Mexican twist on the Italian dessert, Thomasina Miers’ recipe for cinnamon semifreddo with chocolate drizzle and raspberries laces the berries with tequila or mezcal.
Why should kids have all the fun when it comes to icy poles? Angela Hartnett’s boozy recipe for grown-up popsicles skips the gin and vermouth of a traditional negroni, and opts for watermelon, orange and lime juice and enough Campari to get a summer party started.(Removing watermelon seeds will be the most time-consuming part of your prep.) If the children want in on the ice block action, try Tom Hunt’s recipe for wonky fruit ice lollies, which packs the mould with overripe fruit, milk, chia seeds and a sweetener of your choice to create creamy, frozen rainbow confectionary.“It couldn’t be simpler to make,” says Anna Jones of this rockmelon sorbet that has just four ingredients (three if you ditch the frozen berry garnish, and two if your ripe melon is naturally sweet enough to leave out the maple syrup).Frozen pieces of chopped melon are thrown into a high-powered blender, along with (optional) maple syrup and the juice and zest of a lemon.
The result? A dessert that provides cold comfort while “appeasing my ice-cream-obsessed son”, says Jones.
FTSE 100 hits record as interest rate hopes push down UK borrowing costs
The UK’s blue-chip stock index has hit a record high, as hopes of interest rate cuts this year drove down government borrowing costs.Almost every share on the FTSE 100 rose on Friday, the fall in the value of the pound bolstering multinationals listed in London and propelling the index above 8,500 points for the first time.The “Footsie”, which tracks the 100 biggest London-listed companies, rose 1.6% to hit a fresh intraday high of 8,533.43 points amid growing confidence that the Bank of England would ease monetary policy this year
FTSE 100 share index hits record high; relief for Rachel Reeves as UK borrowing costs fall – as it happened
Boom! Britain’s blue-chip share index has hit a new alltime high.The FTSE 100 index, which tracks the hundred largest companies listed in London, has jumped by over 1% to 8480.36 points in early trading, above its previous intraday high of 8474 points set last May.Stocks are on a three-day rally, which started on Wednesday when UK inflation dropped unexpectedly, potentially paving the way for several interest rate cuts this year.Today’s disappointing retail sales figures, folowing Thursday’s weaker-than-expected growth data for December, have added to hopes that the Bank of England will ease monetary policy this year
How would a Tiktok ban work in the US?
The US supreme court upheld a law signed by Joe Biden that banned the short-form video app TikTok beginning on Sunday. The company was given the option to divest from ByteDance to avoid the ban, but TikTok has said divestment is “not possible technologically, commercially, or legally” and requested an injunction to pause the ban during the legal process.More than 170 million Americans use TikTok. Lawyers for the company contend that banning the app violates the first amendment rights of those tens of millions of users; the argument did not sway a federal appeals court, which upheld the ban-or-sale bill in December. Congress passed the legislation with a bipartisan majority in April
Sir David McMurtry obituary
In engineering, quantity production is possible only with fine, repeatable measurements. Starting from a problem in aerospace, David McMurtry, who has died aged 84, did much to advance the scientific study of measurement – metrology – and so facilitated hi-tech mass production in many fields.While working for Rolls-Royce in 1972 at its Filton factory, near Bristol, on the Olympus engines used in the Concorde supersonic airliner, McMurtry became frustrated with the foibles of the existing coordinate measuring machines (CMMs). One morning he arrived at work with a home-modified measuring probe that could cope with the complex task of properly measuring the twisting aerofoils of the Olympus fan blades – data needed to ensure that engine reached the required performance.To make these measurements was tiresome
Australian Open 2025: De Minaur v Cerundolo, Swiatek beats Raducanu, Sinner to come – live
De Minaur* (8) v Cerundolo (31) (5-3): De Minaur collapses from 40-15 to deuce before peeling off a fourth ace. Cerundolo responds with a trademark forehand inside-out winner. A third deuce eventuates when the Australian sends a backhand wide, and a fourth when he sends a backhand long. A blistering backhand winner down the line hands Cerundolo a break point, but deuce five follows quickly after as the eighth seed lands a rare first serve. Still De Minaur cannot see the job through, larruping a forehand long for deuce six
Emma Raducanu exits Australian Open after defeat to ruthless Iga Swiatek
Over the past few years of professional tennis, the sight of Iga Swiatek annihilating another poor, defenceless opponent has become as sure as the sun will rise. When Swiatek’s game is flowing and her mind is clear, the combined quality of her violent ball-striking, athleticism and unrelenting focus is so great that, at some point or another, she has rendered nearly all of the best players in the world spectators in their own match.On Saturday afternoon at Melbourne Park, it was Emma Raducanu’s turn to endure such an unpleasant experience. Raducanu cut a lonely, solemn figure on one of the biggest tennis stadiums in the world as she was completely helpless in the face of a supreme Swiatek, who ruthlessly opened up her bakery to reach the fourth round of the Australian Open with a dominant 6-1, 6-0 win.In her first tournament of the season, after back spasms significantly affected her pre-season preparation, Raducanu had arrived in the third round of the Australian Open for the first time in her career with two solid straight-sets wins over Ekaterina Alexandrova, the 26th seed, and Amanda Anisimova
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