Strawberry Ice Cream Recipe

This Fresh Strawberry Ice Cream is the best recipe for strong, fresh strawberry flavor and creamy, smooth ice cream. It’s made with an ice cream maker and eggs for a traditional texture and is the perfect ice cream for your summer strawberry feasting.

While strawberries are my first true food love, most recipes using them leave me cold. I want to say it’s me and not them, but really….it’s them. Strawberries are usually just so much better when they’re fresh and ripe, eaten with something creamy and/or chocolatey.

Strawberry ice cream is no exception. Usually, it’s a hard pass from me. Icy, watery, and bland, I’ll take pretty much any other ice cream flavor over strawberry. Apparently future leaders, brainiacs, movers, and shakers agree with me–just read this highly scientific article on the subject from the Yale student body a few years ago.

Until now. Because I think I’ve figure out how to make strawberry ice cream that’s creamy and incredibly flavorful. By cooking a whole pound of pureed strawberries and mixing them with an egg-based custard, there’s enough fat and sugar in this ice cream to keep it from freezing into a hard, icy block.

The Secret to Creamy, Softer Homemade Ice Cream

Often, homemade ice cream freezes into a hard, icy block. However, with the proper ratios of fat and sugar, along with enough churning to incorporate air, homemade ice cream can be easy to scoop and creamy. That’s because fat and sugar are the components of ice cream that don’t freeze completely,and there has to be enough to keep the liquid in the milk and cream from freezing solid.

But in strawberry ice cream, that balance becomes even harder to find. A lot of extra liquid is added in the form of strawberry juice. However, by cooking the pureed strawberries and sugar down into a jam-like texture, you can add a lot of strawberry without adding a lot of extra liquid.

This strawberry ice cream recipe is based on this vanilla ice cream, but there’s an extra egg yolk and a bit more sugar to balance out the strawberry juice. The result? A lusciously pink, soft, creamy, beautiful scoop of strawberry ice cream.

Oh, and there aren’t any strange little chunks of strawberry in this ice cream, since they really are controversial according to this Reddit thread. Though if you’re a strange soul who loves those weird icy bits, you could certainly dice a handful of strawberries and toss them in for the last few minutes of the churning step.

Strawberry Ice Cream Recipe Ingredients

• 1 pound fresh strawberries, washed and hulled
• 1 1/2 cups sugar (divided)
• 2 Tablespoons lemon juice
• 2 cups cream
• 1 cup whole milk
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 6 egg yolks
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Equipment

• A 2 qt. ice cream maker
• Mesh sieve
• Whisk
• Medium pot

Making the Strawberry Ice Cream

Before beginning, place the bowl of your ice cream maker in the freezer, if needed.

Cooking Down the Strawberries

In a blender or food processor, process the strawberries until they are a smooth puree. Pour the puree (there should be about 2 cups) into a small pot with 1/2 cup of sugar and the 2 tablespoons of lemon juice.

Place the pot over a burner on medium heat and stir it as it cooks to prevent scorching. Let it cook down for 8-10 minutes, or until it’s reduced to around 1 1/4 cups. Set it in the refrigerator until it’s completely chilled.

Preparing the Custard

In a medium pot, combined the whole milk, cream, remaining 1 cup of sugar, and salt. Set a fine mesh sieve over a clean mixing bowl.

Divide the six eggs and place the yolks in a small bowl. Whisk them with a fork until they’re smooth.

Stir and heat the milk and cream mixture until it’s hot and steaming but not boiling. Slowly ladle some of it into the egg yolks while whisking to warm them gently.

Pour the egg yolks back into the pot with the rest of the hot cream and milk and return it medium low heat. Stir the custard constantly until it thickens and coats the back of a spoon. You should be able to run a finger across the spoon and leave a trail through the custard. Remove it from the heat. Stir in the vanilla extract.

Pour the mixture through the sieve, then cover it with a lid or plastic wrap. Refrigerate the mixture until it’s completely cold–it’s best left overnight.

Churning and Freezing the Ice Cream

When the strawberries and custard are both completely chilled, pour the custard into the bowl of the ice cream maker and begin churning it. When it’s slightly thickened, pour in the strawberry mixture.

Continue churning the ice cream until it’s thickened to the consistency of soft serve. Remove it from the ice cream machine.

Serving Strawberry Ice Cream

You can serve the strawberry ice cream immediately after churning as a soft serve ice cream. If you want to serve and eat it as a harder, scoopable ice cream, you can quickly transfer it into a dish. Place the dish in the freezer until it’s frozen into a harder ice cream.

It should achieve a good consistency for scooping in about 8 hours, but it may take longer.

While it’s delicious on it’s own, this two-ingredient magic shell will really take your strawberry ice cream to the next level. And who doesn’t love strawberries and chocolate together? It’s a flavor match made in heaven.

Storing the Ice Cream

To help your ice cream last as long as possible, it should be stored in the coldest part of your freezer. The nearer to the door it is, the more the temperature is going to fluctuate as the freezer is opened and closed. If ice cream thaws and refreezes, it becomes icier and sometimes gritty, so keep it as consistently cold as possible to extend the (freezer) shelf life.

Always keep the ice cream covered in the freezer, and it should preferably be stored in an airtight container. A cover will help protect the ice cream from ice particles that can form on it, creating an icy texture. The ice cream can also absorb flavors from other foods in the freezer.

If stored properly, strawberry ice cream will keep for up to 6 weeks.

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