The Friday Baking Project
Strawberry Ice Cream

Yield: 1 quart

# of Servings: 6 to 8

Ingredients

1 lb ripe strawberries
¼ cup sugar, more to taste
1 tsp lemon juice, more to taste

2 cups (16 fl oz) heavy cream
â…“ cup (2.3 oz / 65 g) sugar
Pinch of salt

6 egg yolks
â…“ cup sugar (2.3 oz / 65 g) sugar

Special tools and equipment needed:

• Ice cream maker
• 3 qt. stainless heavy bottomed sauce pan
• Large mixing bowl (for ice bath)
• Medium mixing bowl or 2-qt bain marie (for the cooked custard)
• Instant read thermometer
• Blender or food processor

Pre-recipe preparations:

• Day before – if using ice cream maker with separate freezer bowl, place in freezer overnight.
• Set up ice bath
• Place all tools and equipment where they will be used. The heat-proof spatula and the thermometer need to ready by stove top. The ice bath, strainer, container for the cooked custard, and trivet need to ready on a counter.

Directions:

Making the strawberry pur©e:

1. Wash the strawberries and let dry on a paper towel or clean kitchen cloth lined baking pan.
2. De-stem the strawberries and place in blender or food processor with the sugar and lemon juice. Blend to a smooth pur©e.  There should be 1 ¼ cups of pur©e. 
3. Taste the pur©e. It should taste sweet with just a hint of acidity from the lemon juice. Add more sugar a tablespoon at a time and lemon juice a half-teaspoon at a time to achieve your preferred taste.
4. Set aside in the refrigerator. This can be done the day before, or two weeks before and frozen. Defrost the day before.

Making the custard (crème anglaise) base:

1. Place the cream, sugar, salt in the sauce pan and stir together. 
2. Over medium heat, bring just to a simmer. 
3. Whisk together the egg yolks and sugar, just enough to thoroughly combine.
4. Temper (warm) the egg yolks by gradually whisking in approximately â…“ of the hot cream.
5. Whisk the warmed egg yolk mixture into the remaining cream. 
6. Cook over low heat, stirring the bottom constantly with a heat-proof spatula, until it coats the back of a spoon, 180 °F.
7. Remove from the heat, and pour through the fine mesh strainer into the mixing bowl or bain marie. 
8. Whisk several times to release some heat, and place in ice bath.
9. Stir the custard occasionally with a clean spatula until it cools down to 60 °F. 
10. Stir in the strawberry pur©e. 
11. Cover with plastic film and refrigerate for at least 8 hours, or overnight
12. Churn the ice cream according to the machine’s directions. The ice cream will be the consistency of soft-serve when done. 
13. Remove from the machine container and freeze in a 1-qt. plastic container.  The ice cream will harden as it sits. 
14. Homemade ice cream doesn’t hold as well as commercial ice cream. Enjoy within one week.