Fresh Strawberry Ice Cream

Staying true to the pure wonderfulness of home made ice cream, I've decided that to satisfy my absolute love for the stuff, I will be making one ice cream per week. Or at least thats my hope...we'll see how long my family goes along with it before they get tired of being "forced" to eat so much decadence. 'Tis the season for fresh strawberries, and upon request from my boyfriend and having the knowledge that it is my mother's favorite ice cream, I chose to make strawberry ice cream this week.

For a long time I was under the assumption that I did not like strawberry ice cream, but that may have had to do with the fact that I had never had really good strawberry ice cream. And let me just tell you...I like strawberry ice cream. I love the subtle pink color the ice cream acquires once the strawberries have been added, and the aroma that the fresh berries have. There is something about the smell of fresh produce, especially beautifully ripe strawberries. 

Fresh Strawberry Ice Cream

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup whole milk

3 egg yolks, beaten

2 cups heavy whipping cream

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 pint strawberries

1/2 cup sugar (I used more like 1/4 cup, but thats just me)

Combine sugar, salt, milk and egg yolks in a saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, just until bubbles begin to appear around the edge of the mixture, around 12-15 minutes.

Strain the mixture through a fine mesh sieve and cool to room temperature. (I found that the fastest way to do this is by placing the bowl holding the mixture into an ice bath.)

While the mixture is cooling, mash the strawberries and sugar (I used a pastry blender).

When everything is cool, stir in the vanilla, cream and sweetened strawberries and chill for at least an hour.

Pour into your ice cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturer's instructions, usually around 15-30 minutes. Once churned, place in the freezer for around 3 hours to allow the ice cream to set.

While the recipe called for 1/2 cup of sugar to be added to the strawberries, I really wanted a strong strawberry flavor, so I added a little bit less sugar. And it turned very nicely. I did however, get the "criticism" from my boyfriend that there were too many strawberries. Now I think thats just silly, because you can never have too many strawberries. But I suppose if you are serving this ice cream to those who enjoy finding things to complain about, I'm sure you could cut back on the amount of strawberries and sugar accordingly. Either way, I encourage anyone to try this recipe.