Homemade Blackberry Ice Cream!

I just bought myself an ice cream maker this week. The end of summer seems like an appropriate time for that, doesn't it?? :-P

Well of course I had to try out my new ice cream maker as soon as it came. I ran across a recipe for blackberry ice cream, and remembered that earlier in the summer when blackberries were in season, I pureed a bunch of them to freeze them for later. I figured this was the perfect opportunity to use them!

Here is the recipe I used... It calls for a custard base, then you add in the blackberry juice/syrup. I didn't strain my puree when I made it, and I didn't feel like waiting for it to thaw before making my ice cream, so I just dumped the frozen blackberry yumminess into the custard base.

...and mixed it all together until it thawed...

...which had the additional effect of cooling off the ice cream mixture enough that I could put it in my ice cream maker and start churning!

It only needed about 20-30 mins of churning to look ready to eat!

We had some for sampling, and put the rest in the freezer to harden up and save for later.

Next time though, I probably will take the time to strain the seeds out of the blackberry puree. I didn't mind them being in there too much, but I think I would like it better without them. All in all, this was a VERY yummy recipe :)

I think I'm going to go pull it out of the freezer and have some for breakfast!

Here's my scaled recipe for my 1.5 qt ice cream maker:

• 3/4 cup half-and-half
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 egg yolks
• 3/4 cup heavy cream
• approx 1 cup blackberry puree (see original link for using fresh blackberries!)

Heat half-and-half and sugar in a pan over low heat. Remove from heat when heated through, before mixture starts to boil so the half-and-half doesn't start to curdle.

Beat egg yolks until slightly thick. Slowly pour 1/4 cup of the hot half-and-half mixture into the egg yolks, whisking constantly, to temper them. Then pour the egg yolk mixture into the pan with the rest of the half-and-half mixture.

Cook over low heat until thick, stirring constantly (between 5-10 minutes)

Pour heavy cream into a separate bowl. Pour custard through a fine mesh sieve and stir into the heavy cream. Add blackberry puree and stir.

Chill mixture completely. When cool, pour into ice cream maker and churn until frozen (20-40 mins)

Enjoy!