Ice Cream Adventures - Fresh Raspberry Ice Cream

For years I had been eyeing a fancy ice cream maker but was hesitant to buy it because it was somewhat expensive for a single-purpose appliance that is not used regularly. But a while back when I saw that Amazon had it on sale, with free shipping, and a $20 rebate, I went for it.

It requires neither ice, nor salt, nor the pre-freezing of a canister. You just pour in the ice cream mixture, push a button and in 30 minutes you have wonderful homemade ice cream. It works with its own built-in chiller unit, which is why it weighs 37 pounds. Good thing I got free shipping!

The first ice cream I tried was raspberry ice cream made with fresh raspberries from a friend's garden. It was wonderful; smooth and creamy with an intense, fresh raspberry flavor. Like many of my kitchen experiments, I combined parts of several other recipes to come up with this one.



Since then, I’ve used my ice cream maker for many other flavors of ice cream, with great success. But every summer during raspberry season, I have to make this one.

Note that the small amount of vodka acts as antifreeze, discouraging any leftover ice cream from freezing too hard in the freezer.

Fresh Raspberry Ice Cream

Yield: 1 quart

2 cups fresh raspberries
1 1/3 cups sugar, divided
1 3/4 cups heavy cream
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon vodka

Toss raspberries with 1/3 cup sugar and allow t sit at room temperature for 1/2 hour or longer, stirring occasionally, while you prepare the rest of the recipe. The berries will exude their juices and breakdown.

In a medium saucepan bring cream to a simmer. Meanwhile, whisk eggs with 1 cup sugar until sugar is almost dissolved. Slowly pour hot cream into eggs, a little at a time so as not to scramble the eggs. Whisk until smooth. Pour egg mixture back into saucepan and simmer over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, until mixture reaches 170 degrees, about 6 minutes. Strain and chill.

To expedite the chilling process, you can pour the custard mixture into a metal bowl and set it inside a larger bowl of ice and water. Stir frequently until custard is cool and then chill in the refrigerator.

Puree the sweetened berries in a blender with lemon juice and vodka. Strain through a fine strainer to remove seeds. You should have about 1 cup of strained puree. Chill puree.

Mix together the chilled custard and chilled puree. Freeze in ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions.

Yield - 1 quart.


Tags: raspberry ice cream, Recipe, homemade, ice cream maker