Saturday, May 1, 2010

Fresh Strawberry Ice Cream

As a kid, I hated strawberry ice cream. As an adult, I avoided it, when at all possible.

I hated the seeds and the gummy bits of berry and the artificial strawberry flavor.

When I started making my own ice cream, I decided to give strawberry another chance, and after I made my own, I changed my mind.

Strawberry ice cream is actually pretty darned good.

This recipe pushes the limits of the capacity of my KitchenAid stand mixer ice cream bowl, but it fit. It made two very full quarts of ice cream.

Fresh Strawberry Ice Cream

1 pound fresh strawberries
1 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon vanilla
3 cups heavy cream

Clean and hull the strawberries and cut them in half. Put them into a bowl, sprinkle the sugar on top, and mix well. Set the bowl aside until the strawberries exude moisture and soften.

Blend the strawberries, with all the sugar,  in a blender, food processor, or with a stick blender until smooth.

Strain the berries through a fine-mesh sieve, into a clean bowl, stirring with a spoon or spatula to get the pulp and juice through the strainer. You should have little left in the strainer besides seeds.

Add the salt, vanilla and heavy cream to the berry mixture and stir well to combine. Refrigerate for a few hours or overnight to chill the mixture completely.

Churn the mixture in your ice cream maker according to manufacturer's directions.
Yum