Still-freeze eggless ice cream

Stir the sugar, cream, milk and vanilla together; undissolved sugar is fine.

Pour into a wide pan (or a bowl, halving the recipe for a medium bowl) and freeze until it just starts to go firm but not hard; no more than 30 minutes between stirrings.

Scrape the frozen mixture off the sides, break up the ice and stir vigorously to spread the cold, break up ice crystals and work in air; return to the freezer.

Repeat every half hour until it looks and tastes like soft serve: about 2 hours and four stirrings in the bowl, 2.5 hours and five stirrings in the pan.

Variation: stir in crumbled chocolate chip cookies or blackberry jam, then give one or two more freeze-and-stir cycles because the additions bring heat back in.

Cover or seal and freeze overnight to harden; fat absorbs freezer odours.

Variation, chocolate: make a full quart in a huge bowl, replacing the sugar with chocolate syrup; freeze and stir as before.

Variation, almond: the base with a splash of almond extract instead of vanilla, plus green food colouring.

Bash M&M's in a tea towel with the bottom of a pot and stir them in at the end with one more freeze-stir cycle; do not over-stir or the colours bleed.

Stracciatella: barely melt solid chocolate (pull it from the microwave before the chips visibly melt), drizzle thin strands over the finished ice cream, then stir to break into thin chips; a piping bag gives thinner ribbons. Give a couple more freeze-stir cycles, then harden.