Strawberry Ice Cream #recipe for the 4th! from @DarylWoodGerber

Strawberry Ice Cream

From Daryl aka Avery:

I love ice cream. I especially love fruit-flavored ice cream. And I love ice cream on the Fourth of July! 

What could be better than something red and white for dessert? If you want, you could adorn this ice cream with blueberries! Yum!  Even add stripes of blueberry sauce!

I found this recipe on The PioneerWoman recipe site.

As much as I’d love to tell you everything she wrote…(she’s charming - for example:  “I try to decide if I can make ice cream this early and keep my grubby paws off of it before the guests arrive.”  LOL)…

This has to be my post. My words. But I’m right there with her. I made this ice cream last week, and it’s been really difficult not to eat the whole container myself!

Funny story: I remember a time years ago when my husband walked in on me around breakfast time. I was in the kitchen and in my swimsuit. I like to exercise before breakfast.

I had the freezer open.

He said, “Honey, what are you doing?”

I whipped around, caught red-handed. I was holding a gallon of ice cream and I had a spoon in my right hand. On the spoon – a big hunk of vanilla ice cream.

“Um, I’m eating medicine,” I said sheepishly.

“Medicine? Is that what it’s called?” He roared.

From that point on, we always called ice cream medicine. I do believe it could be. It makes me calm. It makes me smile. It makes me feel good all over.  Medicine, pure and simple.

What do you call ice cream?

FYI, the recipe on Pioneer Woman recipe was double the one below, plus she used 9 egg yolks for her recipe. I cut her recipe in half and only used 4 egg yolks. It turned out beautifully!

STRAWBERRY ICE CREAM

1 ½ cups half-and-half

1 cup sugar

1 whole vanilla bean

4 whole large egg yolks

1 ½ cups heavy cream

2 cups strawberries, hulled and rinsed

1 tablespoon sugar

Stir together the half-and-half and 1 cup sugar in a medium saucepan over medium-low heat. Split the vanilla bean, scrape out the caviar, and add it to the mixture. (The insides of a vanilla bean are really weird looking – like ants. So cool!)

Heat the mixture until it's hot but not simmering or boiling. (Takes about 8-10 minutes, so be patient.)

In a large bowl, beat the egg yolks vigorously with a whisk until they start to lighten in color, about 2 minutes. (I didn’t really notice them lighten, but I whisked  for 2 minutes.)

Next, grab a ladle of the hot half-and-half mixture and very slowly drizzle it into the bowl with the egg yolks, whisking the whole time. (Per the Pioneer Woman – “the purpose of this is to temper the egg yolks and bring them to a good temperature before adding them to the pan.”)

Pour a second ladle of hot half-and-half mixture, making sure to whisk the whole time.

Pour the tempered yolks into the saucepan with the rest of the half-and-half mixture and stir gently with a wooden spoon for 2 to 4 minutes, cooking it slowly until it's thick enough to coat the spoon.  (Mine didn’t coat the spoon, but I did cook 4 minutes. I’m not sure why a wooden spoon is necessary, but I obeyed the direction.)

Pour the thickened liquid through a fine mesh strainer and into a clean bowl. Discard the vanilla bean husk. Add the heavy cream to the bowl and stir gently to combine. Refrigerate this mixture for 2 hours, or until chilled. 

Just before you’re ready to remove the cooled mixture from the refrigerator, combine the strawberries and 1 tablespoon of sugar in a blender. Puree until smooth. Pour the pureed strawberries into the chilled custard mixture and stir.  IT’S SO PRETTY!

Now pour this mixture into your ice cream maker (I use a Cuisinart – love it!). My process takes 25 minutes.

Freeze the ice cream according to directions. (If you make the Pioneer Woman’s amount, you might have to do it in two batches, depending on the size of your ice cream maker.)

After it freezes, transfer it to a freezer-safe container and freeze it for at least 4 hours, or until frozen firm. 

So pretty, so festive, so delicious! I didn’t eat it all myself. I couldn’t bear the guilt!

Savor the mystery!

*

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