Classic Strawberry Ice Cream
a very simple, very adaptable summer strawberry ice cream recipe
I know that I’ve mentioned it close to a hundred times at this point, but in case you missed it, we went strawberry picking a few weeks back. I returned home, my arms brimming with warm summer berries and, after reserving some for snacking, I got to work. I turned two pounds into fresh strawberry preserves, and another pound got tucked into a simple sour cream and olive oil cake (recipe coming to the blog next week). With all the scraps and the last of the berries, I decided to make a classic strawberry ice cream.
This ice cream tastes like what you want strawberry ice cream to taste like. Simple and clean with an assertive fresh fruit flavor…nothing cloyingly sweet or fake. It’s the perfect summer dessert, best enjoyed in a waffle cone in your backyard.
how to make homemade strawberry ice cream
We start with scraps for the base of this ice cream. I did a little repeat of my Strawberry Top and Black Pepper Caramel Ice Cream by collecting all of my grassy green strawberry tops and cold steeping them in the heavy cream. I love this process for two reasons: 1) it gives what would otherwise be a discarded part of the fruit another life—it’s resourceful and low-waste and 2) it imparts such a sweet strawberry flavor to the ice cream without much work.
After cold steeping and straining out the strawberry tops, we make a simple créme anglaise ice cream base. (Check out last week’s deep dive into homemade ice cream for more on this.) After making and chilling the anglaise, I whipped it with some of the leftover strawberry syrup from my strawberry preserves—see, very resourceful—for a little extra strawberry flavor and that pretty pink hue. Before freezing, I folded in a few more chopped fresh strawberries.
a few adaptations:
You know I’m always here for adaptations. Here are a few different ways that you could make this recipe work in your kitchen.
Option 1: Make strawberry preserves and then make strawberry ice cream. This is what I did because I was swimming in strawberries. If you make a quick batch of preserves, simply reserve a little of the excess strawberry syrup for your ice cream and store the rest of the preserves in a jar in the fridge and enjoy by spooning into yogurt or onto toast. *See the notes at the bottom of the recipe for how to make strawberry preserves*
Option 2: Make a simple strawberry pureé to swirl in the ice cream in place of the preserves. Combine some strawberries with a tablespoon or two of sugar and a splash of water and blend until smooth. Fold this pureé into the whipped ice cream base for a strawberry ripple effect. If you do this, share pictures and let me know how it goes!
Option 3: Leave it out completely—your ice cream won’t be pink, but it will still have the strawberry flavor from the steeped tops and will still be delicious. Or, if you really want that pretty pink hue, add a couple of halved strawberries to cold steep with the green tops and heavy cream.
classic strawberry ice cream
makes: one quart
Ingredients:
150 g strawberry tops (from about 1 pound strawberries)
460 g (2 cups) heavy cream, plus a little more*
150 g (3/4 cup) granulated sugar
4 egg yolks
pinch of salt
1/2 cup strawberry syrup (*optional: see notes)
1/2-3/4 cup chopped fresh strawberries
Procedure:
Place strawberry tops in a quart deli container or a large bowl with a lid. Cover with heavy cream, seal, and refrigerate overnight or for at least 12 hours. Strain cream out of strawberry tops and into a clean dish. Discard strawberry tops.
Transfer the heavy cream to a medium saucepan and add a little more if needed to bring it back to 460 grams. Bring to a low simmer over medium heat.
While the cream is heating, combine sugar and egg yolks in a large heatproof bowl. Whisk to form a paste.
Slowly stream the hot cream into the egg yolk and sugar mixture, whisking continually, until all of the cream has been added. Transfer the entire mixture back to the pot and return to the heat.
Cook, stirring continually with a wooden spoon, until the sauce has thickened enough to coat the back of a spoon.
Strain the anglaise sauce through a sieve and into a clean bowl. Press a piece of plastic wrap directly over the top and transfer to the refrigerator to chill completely, about 4 hours.
When the anglaise is completely cold, transfer it to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment (or use an electric hand mixer). Whip the anglaise until medium soft peaks form.
With the mixer running, stream in the strawberry sauce if using. When combined, remove the bowl from the mixer and gently fold in the chopped strawberries using a rubber spatula.
Transfer the ice cream mixture to a 9x5” loaf pan and smooth into an even layer. Press a piece of plastic wrap directly over the top and chill until firm, about 12 hours. Serve and enjoy.
a note:
on strawberry syrup: I also made a batch of strawberry preserves with my U-Pick strawberry haul and had some leftover syrup that I didn’t want to waste, which was how it made it’s way into this ice cream.
If you want to make your own batch of strawberry preserves, I used 6 parts strawberries to 1 part sugar by weight, combined them both in a saucepan with a squeeze of lemon juice, and cooked for about 30 minutes, until the strawberries were soft and the syrup was thickened. Reserve 1/2 cup of the liquid for this recipe and store the rest of the preserves in a jar in the fridge for about a month.
If you do not want to make your own batch of strawberry preserves, you can either leave them out completely (but your ice cream won’t be pink), or you can blend about 1 cup of fresh strawberries with a couple tablespoons of sugar and a splash of water to make a puree and fold that through the whipped ice cream for a strawberry ripple effect.
