When restaurant owner Morfudd Richards lovingly refurbished a tatty Mr Frosty ice cream van she found on eBay in 2004, it became Lola’s On Ice – a mobile catering service for gourmet ice cream lovers.

Drawing on knowledge from running Lola’s Restaurant in Islington, she began developing ice cream recipes that would blow people’s taste buds.

Her new book, Lola’s Ice Creams And Sundaes, contains some of the fruits of her labour, all of which have been scribbled on the van’s specials board at some point over the last four years.

With the scientific determination of experts at CERN, coupled with a love of “creamy mounds of gorgeousness”, Morfudd set about discovering just how to make the perfect ice cream.

“It’s usually made of milk and/or cream, sweeteners, emulsifers such as egg yolks, sometimes a stabilising agent and flavouring. Looking at the role of each component helps to improve the quality of your ice cream.”

There are two ways of making ice cream, she points out. Cooks can either combine fruit or flavouring with milk and/or cream and sugar, then churn it in an ice-cream machine or use the still-freezing method.

Still-freezing method

1) Place the mix into a sealed container and put it into the coldest part of the freezer.

2) After 1 to 1½ hours, remove the container from the freezer and beat the mix with either a fork or an electric whisk in order to make a uniform slush. Return the mixture to the freezer and repeat this process twice at intervals of 1 to 1½ hours.

3) After it has been beaten three times, return it to the freezer for a further hour or so and it should then be ready to serve.

Try this recipe of Morfudd’s and see if you develop her devotion to ice cream.

Parsnip and cider ice cream with apple crisps

Serves 6-7. Ingredients, for the ice cream: 300g whole milk; 300g creme fraiche; four egg yolks; 150g caster sugar; three parsnips, scrubbed (don’t peel them as much of the nutrients will be lost); 1.3 litres sweet cider; 1 cinnamon stick. For the crisps: two apples; juice of a lemon; 50ml stock syrup, cooled.

Method: Heat the milk and creme fraiche in a pan to just below boiling point. Beat egg yolks with sugar. Add warm milk to egg-sugar mix and return mixture to the pan.

Heat, stirring continuously, until the temperature reaches 80degC on a probe thermometer and remains at that temperature for 15 seconds. Do not allow the mix to boil or it’ll scramble.

Turn off the heat and keep whisking for a few minutes to reduce the heat. Transfer to a container, and place in an ice bath to cool the custard as quickly as possible to 4degC.

Top and tail the parsnips, remove and discard the inner core and chop them into pieces approximately 5cm long.

Put in a pan with the cider and cinnamon stick, bring to the boil then reduce heat and simmer for 1½ hours or until the parsnips are very tender and most of the liquid has been absorbed.

Transfer half the parsnips to a blender, add a little of the cooled custard, and blend. Add the remaining parsnips, a little more custard, if necessary, and blend until smooth. Strain the mix two or three times in order to remove any fibrous material.

Combine the parsnip mix with the remaining custard. Cover the container and put in the fridge to mature for a minimum of 4 hours (or ideally overnight).

Churn in an ice-cream machine until firm or follow the still-freezing method. Put in a sealed container and cover the top of the ice cream with waxed or greaseproof paper. Transfer to the freezer until needed.

To make the apple crisps, pre-heat the oven to 100C and line a baking sheet with non-stick baking paper or foil.

Wash and dry the apples, then slice them as thinly as possible vertically. Squeeze lemon juice onto the slices as you go, in order to avoid discolouration.

Dip the apple slices in the stock syrup then place on the prepared baking sheet and bake in the pre-heated oven for a couple of hours until crisp, keeping an eye on them so that they do not overcook.

Cool, then place in an airtight container until needed.