There's still warmth in the sun during the day but at night the air is cooling. Sigh. Goodbye Summer. But with one last ode to the previous season I made delicious Strawberry Ice Cream. I've lusted after an ice cream maker for sometime and it's the last thing I need when my tiny, weeny, poor-excuse-for-a-kitchen is bursting at the seams. But I needed to purge the ice cream want out of my system. So I bought a maker for my Birthday. All I can say is YUM!! There's nothing like the silkiness on the tongue from using a fresh egg yolk custard and finely chopped super sweet strawberries. And it's so easy to make, I surprised myself. I thought I'd start off with a basic Vanilla Bean recipe (bottom left pic) and then adventure to Strawberry (recipe below). Carefully place a scoop on a chocolate chip cookie (my daughter made these) and top with Persian Fairy Floss
Winter here we come....skiing, soups and baked dinners. Maybe it won't be so bad after all?
Strawberry Ice Cream
2 cups stemmed and coarsely chopped strawberries
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar (infused vanilla bean sugar optional)
1 cup milk
1 cup heavy cream
3 large egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1} Puree Strawberries Using 2 tablespoons of sugar and 1 cup strawberries, puree in a food processor until sugar is dissolved. Set aside
2} Custard Mix Heat over low/medium heat the milk, 3/4 cup cream and remaining 1/2 cup sugar. In a medium bowl whisk together egg yolks and remaining 1/4 cup cream until pale yellow
3} Tempering Egg Yolks Continue heating milk, cream and sugar mix until bubbles form and sugar dissolves. Do not let boil over. Remove from heat. In other bowl with yolks and cream, whisk whilst slowly adding a quarter of the hot mixture to temper yolks. After fully blended, add to mixture back into saucepan
4} Custard Cooking Stir constantly with a wooden spoon for about 4 to 5 minutes. Custard should be thick enough to run a finger across the back of wooden spoon. Make sure you mix all mixture across the bottom of the saucepan. The mixture should not bubble or boil
5} Add Strawberry Puree Remove custard from heat and stir in pureed strawberries and vanilla extract. Pour mix through a sieve into another bowl, gathering all seeds
6} Cool and Chill Mixture Place bowl into a larger ice and water filled bowl to cool until mixture is at room temperature. Cover with cling wrap directly on top of custard so no skin forms. Place in refrigerator 3 to 12 hours
7} Churn Ice Cream Follow manufacturers instructions to churn mixture. Add 1 cup of chopped strawberries into ice cream in the last 5 minutes
8} Further Freeze Ice Cream After churning, place into an air tighter container and keep in freezer to fully set
9} Serving When ready to use, leave to soften for a few minutes. Scoop with an ice cream scoop and carefully place on a home baked cookie and Persian Fairy Floss or use as desired
