Ann Fanshawe

Ann Fanshawe, Lady Fanshawe (25 March 1625 – 20 January 1680) was an English memoirist and author best known for her memoirs written during the English Civil War. A recipe for ice cream in her 1665 book is thought to be the earliest recorded in Europe.

Her recipe for "icy cream" is recorded as follows: "Take three pints of the best cream, boil it with a blade of Mace or else perfume it with orange flower water or Ambergreece, sweeten the Cream, with sugar let it stand till it is quite cold, then put it into Boxes, ether of Silver or tinn, then take, Ice chopped into small pieces and put it into a tub and set the Boxes in the Ice covering them all over, and let them stand in the Ice two hours, and the Cream Will come to be Ice in the Boxes, then turn them out into a salvar with some of the same seasoned Cream, so serve it up to the Table."