Strawberry Swirl Ice Cream

Tis' the season here at Strawberry Fields Forever, USA... did you know that a third of  this country's strawberries are grown right here along the central California coast.

This time of year I buy three cartons of fresh berries every Saturday at the farmer's market. While I eat most of them straight up, I decided to try making strawberry ice cream the other day.

It was so good I had to share it.

I use the basic techniques from my peppermint ice cream recipe.

Strawberry Swirl Ice Cream

Ingredients

2 cup fresh strawberries, washed, hulled and chopped

1 1/2 cup heavy cream

1 1/2 cup whole milk

2 egg yolks

1/2 cup sugar

2 tablespoons vanilla extract

1) Chop the strawberries in a food processor, you should get about 1 1/2 cup of puree.

2) Refrigerate this puree until later.

3) Combine cream and milk in a medium saucepan over medium heat until almost boiling, stirring for 5 to 8 minutes, then reduce the heat to low. 

4) In a bowl add the egg yolks, sugar and the extract and mix together well. This mixture will be very thick, just keep whisking it or you could even use an electric hand mixer.

5) Add four tablespoons of the hot milk/cream , one tablespoon at a time, stirring each tablespoon in fully. This helps to warm up the egg/sugar mixture so the egg yolks don't cook when you add it to the hot cream.

6) Cook over low heat until slightly thickened, about 4 to 5 minutes. The ice cream will coat the back of the spoon.

7)  Cool the ice cream base completely in the fridge, overnight preferably.

8) Just before freezing, combine 1 cup of strawberry puree with the ice cream base, mix well.

9) Freeze for 20- 25 minutes.

10) Remove the ice cream into a bowl for further freezing. Swirl in the remaining half cup of strawberry puree.

Allow to harden before serving, about 2-4 hours.