I’ve been making ice cream all summer. Aside from it being one of my favorite desserts, it’s been fun to make with my kids. We’ve worked through ideas for flavors, had at-home taste testing, and discussed the importance of chocolate chips in ice cream. Oddly enough, there are some flavors that are better without the addition of chocolate chips.
As summer draws to a close, I’m not sure where my ice cream adventures will take me. I envision fun flavors like pumpkin or apple spice and definitely peppermint stick, a childhood favorite, but beyond those, the future is uncertain until next summer.
For now though, I’m taking advantage of the fresh berries that are in season and my most recent adventure has involved blackberries. Black Raspberry ice cream is a favorite in our house, and this recipe, while a bit more labor intensive than I like for a summer food, is absolutely worth the work.
Black Raspberry Ice Cream
Ingredients:
4 half-pint containers of black raspberries (blackberries) rinsed and drained
juice from 1/2 lemon
1 1/2 cups sugar, divided
1 1/2 cups whole milk
2 3/4 cups heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2-3/4 cup chocolate chunks (optional)
What’s Next:
Place blackberries in a large bowl and toss with 1/2 cup of the sugar. Gently stir and allow to sit for 2 hours. During this time time berries will soften, so after about an hour you can easily break them in half with a spatula or spoon.
After two hours, strain berries and reserve liquid. Place remaining berries in a food processor and process for 10-12 seconds to break down fruit.
Working in small batches, place some of the fruit in a strainer over a large bowl and slide a rubber spatula or wooden spoon back and forth. This will release the fruit juice, but keep the seeds in the strainer. Continue until all of the fruit has been strained.
Add lemon juice to strained fruit and stir.
In a large bowl, place remaining sugar and whole milk. Stir with a wire whisk until sugar is dissolved. Add heavy cream and continue to stir.
Add blackberry juice to milk and cream mixture and stir everything together to combine.
Pour into ice cream maker and process for 25 minutes.
Add the chocolate chunks (I always do) and process for 2-3 minutes more until fully blended.
