This could quite possibly be my favorite way to preserve strawberries, in homemade ice cream! This custard based ice cream is oh so sweet with the dreamy taste of summer. The beautiful vibrant pink color? All natural baby!I’ve always loved strawberry ice cream. I bounce back and forth between calling vanilla or chocolate my favorite, mainly because they’re such good bases for other flavors. But I realized that whenever I’m scooping Neapolitan ice cream (you know the one that’s a mix of vanilla, chocolate and strawberry?) I always end up wanting more strawberry.
I’ve never actually bought strawberry ice cream, but after berry picking with my sister, mother-in-law, sister-in-law and her niece, I decided it was definitely time to make my own.
We went to Biringer Farm in Arlington, WA. They definitely had their system down.
You take a tractor out to the berry fields and can pick strawberries or raspberries. We were right at the end of strawberry season and the beginning of raspberry season. The best part of the tractor ride was the tired little kids. They obviously expended all their energy in the fields and our tractor looked like it was full of little vampires with pallid Washington weather skin, dark circled eyes and berry (or sometimes dirt!) stained mouths.
Aren’t they adorable?!!!!!!!
We had our own pint sized picker, Heather’s niece Eva. She brought a berry container that she made herself and we had a fun game she invented of each finding “The Perfect Strawberry!” then trading.
We started with strawberries, digging deep into the bushy plants, past the waterlogged muddy berries (victims of too much rain) to the deeper hidden gems.
Fortunately we were allowed to eat as we picked, our baskets would have been much too heavy otherwise 😉
Heather looked the most professional of us all and I totally started calling her farmer Heather behind her back after snapping this shot (that’s a compliment in case you couldn’t tell!) I want to be a farmer 🙂
Eventually we moved on to raspberries but only made it down one row before they called us to the tractor for closing time. I made out like a bandit with 12 pounds of strawberries and 3 of raspberries.
I used the fresh berries to make my summer berry salad for dinner (with chicken!) then began freezing the rest except for 1 lb I saved out to make ice cream.
If you’ve never tempered eggs before, don’t worry. I just did a step by step photo tutorial to make it REALLY easy for you. Now get thee some strawberries (frozen are fine too) and whip up some ice cream!
STRAWBERRY ICE CREAM RECIPE
Ingredients
- 1 cup 2% milk
- 1 1/2 cups half and half
- 1/2 cup sugar, divided
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 3 egg yolks
- 1 lb strawberries, hulled (slice into thirds if large)*
Instructions
- Mix milk, half and half, 1/4 cup of the sugar and vanilla in a large saucepan. Heat on medium high until just starting to boil. Turn off heat.
- Whisk egg yolks together in a medium bowl and continue whisking while you pour in 1/2 cup of the hot liquid (this is to temper the eggs). Add another 1/2 cup, continuing to stir, and then one more.
- Pour the contents of the egg bowl into the saucepan and turn heat to medium. Stir slowly until the mixture has thickened and is not quite boiling. Remove from heat.
- In another small saucepan, place strawberries and remaining 1/4 cup sugar. Heat on medium, slightly smashing the berries with a wooden spoon. When they’ve released quite a bit of liquid and are syrupy, remove from heat and stir berries and their liquid into the milk mixture.
- Place the batter in the fridge or freezer (I like to use a bowl with a handle and spout) and leave it until well chilled.
- Mix the batter in your ice cream maker following the manufacturer’s instructions.
Notes
*You can use frozen strawberries, or if you have 1 lb of strawberry conserve, substitute it for the strawberries and 1/4 cup sugar.
Approximate cost/serving: Of course this is cheaper if you grow your own berries or pick them at a local farm, but it should still only come out to $3 or less for good quality ice cream. Eric and I have small servings so it comes out to about 30 cents a serving for us.
Vegetarian/Gluten Free:Â This is vegetarian though not vegan, totally gluten free.
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
6Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 213Total Fat: 10gSaturated Fat: 6gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 4gCholesterol: 117mgSodium: 61mgCarbohydrates: 28gFiber: 2gSugar: 25gProtein: 5g
Nutrition information is an estimate only.
OK, the kids and I are on our way over!!! (Ha ha!) That looks absolutely scrumptious.
A friend here in Seattle mentioned blueberry picking with the kids so we just might have to do that. (Are there bathrooms in the fields? That could be a drawback of taking little munchkins.) 🙂
What a fun day spent with food and family. The ice cream is perfect. There will be a strawberry ice cream made this weekend!
I was SO SAD that I found the BEST raspberries I’ve ever seen SO HUGE and ripe and just dying to get into my mouth when the tractor came, they were so epic I almost wanted to go back next week! But I cheated and bought stuff they had already picked 😉 Good recipie for using our spoils 😉 I’m soo glad I brought gloves that day for digging in the strawberry plants!
Hi Diana! I am now officially your loyal blog reader. 🙂 That ice cream looks scrumptious!
Thanks Tori!!! I loved meeting you in San Diego and look forward to keeping in touch.