Homemade Strawberry Ice Cream
One of the best things about the summer is all the fresh fruit available. Strawberries usually show early in the season so I always associate them with the start of summer, backyard BBQ, and the 4th of July. Our local farmer’s market had some organic strawberries which smelled so sweet it was just impossible not to buy some and make a batch of homemade strawberry ice cream.
Last weekend we celebrated a significant birthday (one ending in a zero) of a very close friend. My mother made a knockout BBQ pulled pork and I made grilled vegetables and a killer pesto macaroni salad along with my favorite lemon cake* and this fresh strawberry ice cream. It was a perfect late spring/early summer meal.
*For this lemon cake, I left out the lavender, multiplied the recipe x 1.5, and baked it in a bundt pan. It made a perfect birthday cake and went really well with the strawberry ice cream.
A Cautionary Tale:
The morning of the BBQ, I woke up to a horrible discovery. I took the ice cream base which I’d made the night before and put it into the frozen bowl. I put the mixer in the center, set the bowl on the machine, and discovered that for some reason the cover would not fit on my ice cream maker
. Nothing I did would make it fit. Then I realized that the bottom of the bowl was completely bowed outward. As best as I can figure, the bowl must have gotten hot (washed by someone who did not know better perhaps) and the heat destroyed the refrigerant inside the bowl. When it froze, it expanded and warped the bowl making it unusable forever. Fortunately, I was able to borrow a machine (thanks mom!) and then had to order a replacement bowl. Still, it was a tough lesson to learn.
I use this Cuisinart 1.5 Quart Ice Cream Maker Ice Cream Machine (Amazon affiliate link). It works very well and I even keep the empty bowl in my freezer so I can make ice cream at a moment’s notice.
Homemade Strawberry Ice Cream Recipe:
Homemade Strawberry Ice Cream
Ingredients
- 2 cups cream
- 1 cup whole milk*
- 5 each egg yolks
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1 pint 1 basket, about 13 oz weight strawberries
- 1 Tbsp lemon juice
- 1 Tbsp sugar
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
- *I didn't have any whole milk but I do buy 1/2 & 1/2 for my coffee so I used 1/4 cup 1/2 & 1/2 and 3/4 cup 1% milk.
Instructions
- Rinse, hull, and slice the strawberries. Chop half of them into very small pieces and keep half of them sliced. Add the sugar, lemon juice, and vanilla extract and mix. Do this in advance so they have time to macerate, at least a few hours or overnight. The sugar, lemon juice, and vanilla will cause the strawberries to soften and release some of their juice. Before mixing into the ice cream base, you'll want to smash them a little more with a fork or puree part of them.
- To make the ice cream base, separate the eggs and put the yolks in a medium-sized bowl. Add 1/4 cup of the sugar and whisk it into the egg yolks.
- Get a big bowl and fill it with ice and a little water. Get a bowl just smaller than that and set it on top of the ice. You will be pouring the custard into that bowl to cool it down quickly. Set a small fine-mesh strainer over the bowl.
- In a medium sized heavy bottomed sauce pan, combine the cream, milk, and remaining 1/2 cup of sugar. Heat until just below a simmer.
- To temper the egg yolks before adding them to the cream mix, take about 1 cup of the hot cream/milk mix and whisk it into the egg yolks. Then add the egg yolks, whisking slowly, back into the cream/milk mix. Cook, being careful not to boil, until the mixture begins to thicken into a custard and will coat the back of a spoon. You do not want to over cook this or the eggs will start to scramble.
- Pour the custard through the strainer set over the bowl on ice. The strainer will catch any bits of egg which might have over-cooked. Stir the custard until cool and then cover and refrigerate until completely cold, preferably overnight.
- Freeze the ice cream according to the manufacturer's instructions and add the strawberries in at the end during the last 5 minutes of churning.
24 Comments
Nick
Looks fantastic! Also, thanks for the heads up on the washing. I know you aren’t supposed to put the ice cream bowls in the dish washer so maybe that happened?
I’ve only used my ice cream maker once since I got it and I’d be devastated if it became unusable!
formerchef
No, I don’t think it went through the dishwasher, but I think it was possible it was washed in the sink in very hot water. It says very clearly on the instructions and (I think on the bowl too) that hot water could damage it. That must be what happened. However, I did a search and I couldn’t find any reports on such a thing happening to a bowl. Sigh. $25 for replacement bowl or $40 for a new machine.
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Baking is my Zen
I love the photography and how you put the photos on angles. Beautifully done!
And the ice cream…YUM! I’m tossing around the idea of buying an ice cream maker, but I want one that makes Gelato too.
Carmen
formerchef
Carmen-
My understanding is that there are two main differences between traditional (American commercial) ice cream and gelato; one is that gelato has a higher milk to cream ratio and the other is that ice cream has more air whipped into it. Gelato is denser because it has less air. I’ve found that most home ice cream makers don’t seem to add too much air during the churning process because they churn pretty slowly. Commercial ice cream is lighter because it means you can sell it cheaper if half your product is just air!
I like the Cuisinart ice cream maker. I’ve had mine for 3 or 4 years and it’s held up well (barring any mistakes on my part!).
Charles G Thompson
A few friends and I made fresh strawberry ice cream with a Cusinart ice cream maker for a Memorial Day barbecue – it was amazing. Looks like yours was too. We’re waiting for peaches to come into season so we can make fresh peach ice cream. Bummer about your canister! Have fun in Panama.
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Chocolate Shavings
I agree – strawberries really mark the summer season – that ice cream is a perfect way to use them!
Angela@spinachtiger
Have a great trip. This picture of the ice cream is beautiful. I love homemade.
Tiffany
I don’t know why and you haven’t done it before, but having “Strawberry Ice Cream” in the picture just fits. Maybe because it reminds me of a Ma & Pa ice cream store where the signs were hand written.
Have fun in Panama! Picture! But I don’t need to mention that… 🙂
formerchef
Tiffany-I’ve done the text over photo thing a couple of other times, but for some reason it only seems to work well on desserts (IMO).
Tiffany
And I’ve only ever noticed it on this one? Hmmmm… probably paying to much attention to the noms on the screen.
Christine
Wow I love how your ice cream looks like in the picture. it’s so yummy. I make ice cream too but i don’t use the ice cream maker. I make them manually. It’s not too hard. But i think it tastes different too. Maybe on how you make it.
I really like your blog. If you wont mind I’d love to guide Foodista readers to this post.Just add the foodista widget to the end of this post and it’s all set, Thanks!
Melissa
Hi,
I just recently discovered your blog and am really enjoying it.
We just attempted to make strawberry ice cream. It was similar to your recipe. I wish I had read your post before we made it, because I would have used the tempering the eggs tip. I just whisked it in really fast, but there were a few little strands of cooked egg in the final product. Still good, but a little less appealing.
Have fun on your trip.
Jennifer S
This is a lovely photograph. 🙂 Thanks for sharing it. Makes me want to fire up the ice cream maker, too.
yasa
would like to eat it now!!!!
jill
I have been looking for the perfect strawberry ice cream recipe, and I think I’ve found it here. Thanks for posting this. I will post back on how it turned out.
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Andrea
This ice cream is delicious!! We picked ~26 lbs. of strawberries from an organic u-pick farm near us the other day, so I went pretty crazy with making different strawberry ice creams 🙂 This recipe got my boyfriend’s vote for the best! Thanks for the recipe! I thought this custard based ice cream would be kind of complicated to make.. but was suprised at how easy it was!
formerchef
That’s great! Thanks for letting me know.
Chloe S. Henderson
I made the strawberry ice creamand it was sooooooooooo good:D I <3 it.
Camille
Hi, I’m actually writing about Panama. I was looking for strawberry ice cream and stumbled on to this. I’d love to exchange info on Panama. We have property on Caya de Agua in Boca Del Toro. What part of Panama did you go to?
formerchef
Hi Camille- You can see my Panama trip here: http://www.wired2theworld.com/our-travels/central-america/panama-2010/
Jill
We doubled this recipe, but made it exactly as the recipe stated. It was SUPERB. Thanks so much!