• Preheat oven to 230C.
• Hull the strawberries and cut them into halves, or quarters if large. Toss the strawberries with the maple syrup, balsamic vinegar and vanilla in a baking dish.
  
• Place them into the oven and immediately reduce the temperature to 120C. Roast for 45 minutes, stirring once or twice.
• Remove from the oven, scrape the strawberries and juices into a bowl and set aside to cool. Once cool puree the berries in a food processor or blender and then refrigerate.
  
• While the strawberries are cooking prepare the ice cream custard base. Put the egg yolks, maple syrup and vanilla into a bowl and set the bowl over a saucepan of boiling water.
• Whisk the mixture for a couple of minutes, until very well combined.
• Then gradually, while whisking constantly, add the cream and milk. Continue to cook the ice cream base, stirring constantly, until it has slightly thickened. This will take approximately 10 minutes.
• Remove from the heat and strain the mixture into a bowl through a sieve. Set aside to cool and then refrigerate overnight or for a minimum of 4 hours, until completely chilled.
• Stir the strawberry puree and ice cream base together, and then churn in an ice cream maker following the manufacture's instructions. Place the ice cream into a covered container and freeze for at least 4 hours.
• If you don't have an ice cream making machine you can still make lovely ice cream. Once you've mixed the strawberry puree and ice cream base together pour it into a glass or stainless steel container and freeze for 45 minutes.
• After 45 minutes remove the ice cream from the freezer and, with a hand-held mixer, stick blender or whisk, stir the mixture thoroughly. Return to the freezer and then stir vigorously every 30 minutes for the next 2-3 hours, until the ice cream is frozen. Ice cream made without a machine is best eaten on the day it is made.
• Remove the ice cream from the freezer for approximately 10 minutes to soften a little before scooping.

Optional Ideas:

• To make a dairy-free version instead of cream use coconut cream and instead of milk use coconut milk.
• You can make vanilla ice cream by just leaving out the roasted strawberries.
• Substitute the strawberries with bananas and the balsamic vinegar with butter for lovely roasted banana ice cream.
• In place of strawberries you could use peaches, nectarines or plums. If doing so replace the balsamic vinegar with butter.