The Best Homemade Strawberry Ice Cream Recipe You’ll Ever Try! With fresh strawberries and a velvety texture, this is the ice cream for when fresh strawberries are in season.
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When I was a little girl, the Strawberry Shortcake doll ruled my world. I have asked for strawberry ice cream and strawberry cake every year for my birthday. One year I even had strawberry-scented scratch and sniff paper on my gifts.
My ideal strawberry ice cream
When I started making my ideal ice cream, I knew I wanted a luxurious texture and a light pink color. I wanted a rich strawberry flavored base with strawberry bits visible. For me, that means using a combination of strawberry puree and strawberries cooked into a jam, both mixed into a custard base.
Start with a custard ice cream base
Puddings are made with eggs. Egg yolks contain lecithin, which are chains of fatty acids that make great emulsifiers. Lecithin helps the fat in the cream bind, creating a better emulsion and creating the rich, creamy, velvety ice cream texture I’ve been looking for.
I first learned how to make this type of custard ice cream from Skye Gyngell’s cookbook, A year in my kitchen, and it’s the basis for almost every type of ice cream I make. My version differs slightly from theirs, but not much.
This is how you avoid frozen chunks of berries
The biggest problem with making strawberry ice cream is that fresh strawberries, which are mostly water, freeze solid when mixed with the ice cream base. You end up with big chunks of strawberry ice cubes in a sea of creamy goodness, and that’s kind of a spoilsport for me.
I set out to fix this problem.
There are a few ways to prevent strawberries from icing when making homemade ice cream:
- get her drunk
- Cook them on the stove
- Roast them in the oven
Alcohol to the rescue?
Alcohol, especially higher proof alcohol like vodka, has a lower freezing point than water. When added to watery fruits like strawberries, it lowers the freezing point and prevents strawberries from turning into red ice cubes in your ice cream.
To try this technique, I cut 1 cup strawberries into small pieces, toss them with 2 tablespoons sugar and 1/4 cup vodka and set aside for about 2 hours. Then I strained the liquid and added the strawberries to my ice cream base.
I found that the alcoholic liquid left over from the soak was actually tastier than the berries (which was great in a cocktail!), but I wanted the strawberry flavor to remain in my strawberries. Also, I know a lot of people who don’t consume alcohol, and while the amount is minimal, I really wanted to create a recipe that everyone can enjoy.
So unfortunately alcoholic berries were not in the picture for me. However, if you want to try this, you only need about 1/4 cup of vodka to 1 cup of diced berries. Let it sit in the fridge for a few hours or up to three days. You can also experiment with the type of alcohol – limoncello, grand marnier, or rum. The higher the alcohol content, the softer your berries will be in the ice cream.
cook strawberries?
There are pros and cons to both boiling and roasting the berries in the oven:
- The professional: Cooking releases water through evaporation and concentrates the strawberry flavor. You’ll end up making a jam or sauce that you can use to distribute the strawberry flavor throughout the ice cream.
- The disadvantage: The flavor of the berries changes during cooking and you miss out on the freshly picked strawberry flavor.
Making cooked strawberry sauce and adding it to my ice cream base gave me almost everything I wanted in strawberry ice cream — a touch of sweetness to balance out berries that might be a bit too tart, strawberry flavor throughout the ice cream, and larger chunks of the berry for extra flavor explosions .
But this ice cream, while delicious, still needed that fresh strawberry flavor.
Do you make a strawberry puree?
After deciding to make a cooked strawberry sauce on the stovetop, I just needed to find a way to incorporate that fresh strawberry flavor.
I did this by chopping more berries, adding sugar and pureeing them with my hand blender. Then I combined the cooked strawberry sauce with the fresh strawberry puree and combined it with my pudding. The result?
The strawberry puree enhanced the soft pink color and added that light, fresh taste of berries picked straight from the garden. I hit the mark with a combination of cooked strawberry sauce and fresh strawberry puree.
This final version was universally loved not only by me but also by my husband and our children who together have sixteen years of ice cream experience. I consider them astute taste testers.
How long does the ice last?
Homemade ice cream doesn’t have the stabilizers that commercial ice cream uses, so it doesn’t retain its creamy texture as long as store-bought ice cream. In other words, homemade ice cream is more likely to crystallize sooner.
Homemade ice cream is best consumed within a day or so, but in my experience, ice cream with a higher fat content, like this recipe, keeps longer than those with a lower fat content. This recipe keeps its quality for about a month. It’s still perfectly edible afterwards, but it may form ice crystals.
Can frozen strawberries be substituted for fresh ones?
Since the strawberries in this recipe are boiled or mashed, you can use either fresh or frozen berries. You still want to slice or dice the berries, so I’d buy sliced frozen berries rather than whole if possible. I would also thaw the berries before pureeing them.
CONTINUE READING:
Want to experiment with flavors? Do it
Add herbs like thyme, basil, or bay leaf to the berries. You can also add orange or almonds to the cream. Anything is possible with ice cream.
More Homemade Ice Cream Recipes
Keep making fun with these recipes.
- Cherry ice cream with chocolate chips
- Mint Julep Ice Cream
- Blueberry Frozen Yoghurt
- Coffee Heath Bar Ice Cream
- Mexican chocolate ice cream
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Learn how to make homemade strawberry ice cream
Strawberry ice cream
Instructions for ice cream without churn:
Pour the ice cream into a shallow container, e.g. B. a 9×13 pan. Put it in the freezer. Blend every 15 to 20 minutes with a whisk or hand mixer until it reaches the consistency of soft serve (about 2 hours). Transfer to a freezer container and freeze for at least two hours. Your ice cream won’t be quite as creamy as it would be in a machine, but it will still be delicious.
ingredients
For the ice base
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2 cups heavy cream
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2/3 Cup whole milk
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1 vanilla podsplit and scraped seeds or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
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prize Salt
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6 big egg egg yolk
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1/2 Cup sugar
For the strawberry sauce and the puree
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1 lb strawberries, peeled and cut into small pieces (about a dime in diameter)
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3/4 Cup sugar
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1 tablespoon lemon juice
method
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Freeze sundae:
Place the ice cream maker mixing bowl and a separate mixing bowl large enough to hold your pudding in the freezer the day before making ice cream. (Most manufacturers recommend freezing the mixing bowl for 24 hours before making ice cream; the mixing bowl can be placed in while you make the pudding base.)
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Heat the cream, milk and vanilla:
Pour the cream and milk into a medium saucepan set over medium-high heat. Scrape the vanilla seeds out of the pod and add them to the milk mixture along with a pinch of salt.
Bring to a slow simmer until you see small bubbles around the edges of the pan. Stir occasionally. This takes about 15 to 18 minutes. Remove from the heat and let the vanilla infuse into the cream for 15 minutes. (If using vanilla extract, add it now.)
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Mix the eggs and sugar with the milk:
In a separate bowl, beat the egg yolks and sugar with a whisk until the mixture is thick and pale.
Return the milk mixture to medium-low heat and just warm through under a simmer. The cream should be warm to the touch and small bubbles are just beginning to form around the edge. (The mixture needs to be warm to temper the eggs in our next step.
Pour the milk mixture into the egg and sugar mixture in a slow, thin, steady stream, beating all the time. Continue until all the liquid is combined. Don’t rush; otherwise you get scrambled eggs.
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Cook the pudding:
Return the custard (vanilla bean and all) to the pan and heat over low heat. Gently stir with a spatula until the pudding takes on the consistency of maple syrup, about 8 minutes. When it’s done, it covers the back of a spoon and when you drag your finger through it the mark is left behind.
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Chill the vanilla pudding:
Once the pudding has thickened, remove from the heat. Take the mixing bowl out of the freezer and pour the cream into the bowl. Allow the pudding to cool to room temperature, then cover and place in the refrigerator.
This is now the basis for your ice cream. It can be made a week in advance and kept covered in the fridge.
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Prepare strawberry sauce:
Place half the sliced strawberries in a saucepan with half the sugar and all the lemon juice. Place on medium heat and bring to a gentle boil. Stir occasionally and watch the pot as the berries may foam and boil over.
After 10 minutes, lightly mash the boiling berries with a potato masher. Continue to cook the mixture, stirring occasionally, until the volume is reduced by half. This should take around 8 minutes. The sauce is ready when the syrup is deep red and thick like honey. Remove from stove. Pour into a bowl, cover and refrigerate.
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Make the fresh berry puree:
Combine the remaining chopped berries and remaining sugar in a blender or food processor, or with an immersion blender. Blend until a thin sauce forms. Pour into a bowl, cover and refrigerate.
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Stir the ice cream:
Remove the vanilla bean from the cooled custard. Stir in chilled strawberry sauce and fresh strawberry puree.
Place in ice cream maker and stir according to manufacturer’s instructions. When done, it will have the consistency of soft serve ice cream.
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Eat immediately as soft serve or freeze to harden:
If desired, the ice cream can be served immediately. To set to a spoonable consistency, place the ice cream in a loaf pan or other freezer-safe container, press a piece of parchment paper over it, and cover with a lid. Place in the freezer for at least 2 hours. When you’re done, scoop it onto your favorite cone.
This ice will keep for about a month before it begins to crystallize.
| nutritional information (per serving) | |
|---|---|
| 332 | calories |
| 21g | Fat |
| 31g | carbohydrates |
| 6g | protein |
