Strawberry Ice Cream

Image of a bowl of Strawberry Ice Cream against a blue backgroundStrawberries and Cream
I had an ice cream a-ha moment this past weekend. Here’s how it happened. On Saturday I went with some of my family to Brentwood to see if there were any blackberries available to pick. I was in the mood to make some jam. Alas, there were no berries to be found so we settled for picking some lovely nectarines and headed home. I made some awesome scones for breakfast the next morning.

Since I wasn’t able to get the berries for jam from the source, I ended up going to the farmers market and buying a flat each of blackberries and strawberries. After using what I needed for the jam, I found myself with some wicked-good strawberries left over. I didn’t want them to go to waste. Sure, we could have just eaten them but where is the fun in that?

I thought of making a strawberry tart—but that didn’t excite me. I really wanted to make something that would work well with the 4th of July BBQ dinner I had planned and figured what could be more BBQ-friendly than ice cream? So I set out to make some fresh strawberry ice cream.

The a-ha moment happened when I decided to not use a custard base for the ice cream. I have lived most of my life under the assumption that a custard ice cream base produces a better and creamier ice cream. And, it does. But, I have struggled when using it with fresh fruit. The fruit flavor tends to get lost in the richness of the custard. Because I was feeling lazy and tired after jamming, I didn’t want to have to fire the stove again, so I found this recipe for strawberry ice cream that was just milk, cream, and strawberries.

The results were out of this world. Now it is possible that the strawberries are the reason because ingredients matter but I think it had more to do with the fact that the eggs weren’t there to dull the strawberry flavor. And thanks to the heavy cream and whole milk, the creamy mouth feel that I thought would be missing wasn’t. My mind is blown. From now on, if I make ice cream with fresh fruit, I’m doing it this way!

I know not everybody has an ice cream maker in their pantry. You could take a chance and throw this in the freezer without churning and see what happens. Chances are it will taste pretty good.

Strawberry Ice Cream
Adapted from Like Mother Like Daughter
Yields 12 servings

Please note the timing of the ice cream. You will need to freeze the bowl of your ice cream maker overnight, and then re-freeze the ice cream for at least 6 hours if you want firmer ice cream. For soft-serve, you can dish it out right after it comes out of the machine.

Ingredients
2 cups strawberries, coarsely chopped
1 cup sugar (divided)
2 cups heavy cream
1 cup whole milk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 dash salt

Directions
Do ahead the day before
Put a 2-quart ice cream bowl from an ice cream maker in the fridge and leave it to freeze overnight.

Macerate the berries
Mix the chopped strawberries with 1/2 cup of the sugar in a medium-sized bowl. Allow the berries to set for about 15 minutes so they release their juices.

Blend the berries
Blend the strawberries and sugar in a blender or food processor.

Mix the ice cream
In a large bowl combine the strawberry mixture with the heavy cream, whole milk, vanilla extract, salt, and the remaining sugar.

Make the ice cream
Pour the strawberry and cream mixture into the frozen bowl of your ice cream maker. Allow the ice cream maker to run according to the manufactures instructions (about 30 minutes).

To Serve
For soft-serve ice cream, serve immediately.

For a firmer, more scoopable ice cream, scoop ice cream into a bread loaf pan and cover with plastic wrap. Place in the freezer for 6 hours up to overnight.

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