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!
Jen
Is there a way to make this without using an ice cream maker? I was so excited as I read over the recipe and realized I actually had all the ingredients for this! Then, I read about the ice cream maker.. boooo! :(
Nicole aka Gidget
finally made this today and oh my! so amazingly delicious. Thanks, Joy!
sabjimata
Joy, have you ever made your own buttermilk? It’s very easy…just like yogurt, but don’t have the milk as hot. add culture, and voila! Hours later you have fresh, as much or as little as you want buttermilk!
Thanks for the ice cream recipe ;)
Terrianne
No yolking Joy, That looks awesome! I wonder if homemade buttermilk, made with vinegar or lemon (maybe lemon) would work for this recipe?
I’m figuring since the last time I made strawberry ice cream I macerated the strawberries in lemon juice and sugar–it just might.
Ooh, I’m making this tonight. Thank you.
hannah @ thepastrykook
strawberries and ice cream are 2 of my favorite things in the world! thank you!
kennethia
I Love this type of ice cream