I’ll be the first to admit that I have gotten prematurely excited about strawberry season. I’ve already played with strawberry sugar paper, and here I am with strawberry ice cream. It’s not even April! Strawberries aren’t at their peak flavor yet, but I see baskets of them in every market I visit. I just can’t help myself, so I buy and I bake. I should tell you now- it’s going to be a long berry season. Long, glorious and delicious!
This ice cream isn’t as rich and heavy as other well made ice creams. I used whole milk for the base and added a bit of buttermilk. The buttermilk adds a light, yogurt-like tang to the ice cream. And what a compliment to the macerated strawberries! This egg-less ice cream is full of sweet strawberry flavor and highlighted with tangy buttermilk notes. It’s so light an refreshing, I’m already anticipating craving this ice cream on those unbearably hot summer days.
Don’t have an ice cream maker? Well it’s high time you get one!
This is also my one of my submissions for Mike’s Strawberry Seduction Event! What are you waiting for? Go get some berries and make a strawberry something for Mike!
Strawberry Buttermilk Ice Cream
adapted from the New York Times
2 cups cream, half and half or milk
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup sugar
pinch of salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 Tablespoons cornstarch
heaping 1/2 cup sliced and diced strawberries (optional 1 Tablespoon sugar)
Rinse strawberries under cool water and slice. Create a mixture of sliced and diced strawberry pieces. If you find that the strawberries aren’t very sweet, you can toss the sliced strawberries in 1 Tablespoon of granulated sugar and set aside until ready for the ice cream.
Put 1 1/2 cups of cream or milk into a small sauce pan. Add the sugar and salt and heat the milk over medium low heat. Keep and eye on the milk, stirring often so that the bottom of the pan doesn’t get any burned milk bits.
While the milk is heating, measure out the buttermilk and vanilla extract and set aside.
Also measure out the remaining 1/2 cup of milk or cream. Stir the cornstarch into this 1/2 cup of milk, until smooth and no lumps remain.
The milk on the stove should be hot and steaming. The milk does not need to boil, it just needs to be steaming. With the milk over a medium low flame, stir in the milk and cornstarch mixture. Stir the milk constantly until you begin to feel it thicken.
The milk mixture should look like the above picture after it has been thickened by cornstarch. Once the cornstarch is added to the milk it only takes a minute or two to thicken up.
Once the milk mixture is thick, remove from the heat and add vanilla extract and 1/2 cup of buttermilk. Stir to incorporate.
Strain the warm milk mixture into a mixing bowl, cover in plastic wrap and allow to cool in the refrigerator for 2 hours.
Once the mixture is cooled, remove from the refrigerator and stir in the sliced and diced strawberries. Follow the instructions on your ice cream maker and make some delicious ice cream!
rebekka
OH, my goodness. How unbelievably tasty does that sound?!?!?!
Deeba
Me neither Jamie…no ice-cream maker! Grrrrr. To make matters worse, strawberries are about gone in our part of the world!! This is pure seduction Joy!! Beautiful pictures too!!
Jaime
it’s not fair.
i don’t have an ice cream maker. hrumph.
Kevin
That ice cream sounds so good! I like the idea of using buttermilk in ice cream.
Susan from Food Blogga
How can you not get excited with the gorgeous strawberries available here? I love this simple and delicious recipe, Joy. Thanks for the idea!
Linda
Strawberry ice-cream rocks!
Stephanie
I love, love, love all types of berries and am highly anticipating berry season! This treat will definitely be on my list of berry recipes!
RecipeGirl
I agree… I too am becoming a little obsessed with strawberries already. Ours are tasting pretty good. This looks delicious!
katy
this sounds so delicious — and i’m always happier to make ice cream without egg yolks! i love strawberries, and cannot wait for berries to hit the farmer’s market!
Deborah
I’m trying to clear out my freezer to make room for the ice cream maker. I can’t wait!
amanda
I am just as excited about the upcoming berry season! I’m counting down the days till I can eat fresh and ripe strawberries from the farmers market for cheap. Thank god :)
Mari
I love strawberry ice cream and I love buttermilk, but would have never thought to combine them. What a great idea!
megan
Your making me crave strawberrys! I cant wait for the patches to open. Untill then, I’m off to costco to get a fix!
Hummm, Now where is that ice cream maker?
Mike
That looks fantastic! I seem to have something of a home-made ice cream obsession, and I’d never considered employing buttermilk in the custard, but that sounds like it could add a really nice tang to the mix and I bet that pairs very nicely with the sweetness of the strawberries.
And I guess it goes without saying that I share in your strawberry zeal…each week, I tell myself I won’t buy any more, but then I see they’re still on sale and that sweet aroma just demands that I pick up another 3 lbs. Haha, I guess I could have worse compulsions than buying fresh fruit.
Thanks for your entry!
Michael
That looks delicious!