There used to be a tiny, stylish hole-in-the-wall tucked away in Wudaoying, one of the central hutongs in Beijing. Its entire menu revolved around a single ingredient: black sesame. There were black sesame drinks, soups, cakes - and most memorably, a velvety, slate-grey ice cream with a deep, nutty fragrance.

In China, seeds, nuts, and beans are often seen as ideal foundations for desserts - not just for their subtle sweetness, but for their earthy, oily complexity. Ice cream flavours like black sesame, red bean, taro, peanut, matcha, and even cucumber or pea are just as common as chocolate or strawberry. What might seem eccentric or even avant-garde in the West feels entirely natural here.

But why am I talking about ice cream? Most of us instinctively think of Italy - the Roman gelaterias with their snowdrifts of coconut gelato, faded green slopes of pistachio, twinkling lemon sorbet and swirls of soft coffee cream. And yet, frozen desserts may trace their lineage to China’s Tang Dynasty, where court chefs were already experimenting with chilled concoctions made from fermented milk, flour, and crushed ice. Ice itself was a luxury. In summer, huge blocks were hauled down from the mountains and sold on the streets. In the imperial palaces, ice could be created in winter, then stored underground in caverns known as ice houses so that in summer they could chill or freeze wine, fruit and make simple ice cream.

This recipe creates a soft Italian-style ice cream, a kind of China-meets-West. I’ve seen the same flavour in Japan and Korea, so I’m not sure who has claim on the original recipe, but it always takes me back to lazy summer days strolling around the cool Beijing hutongs.

Makes 500-600ml of ice cream