Roasted Strawberry & Buttermilk Ice Cream- Homemade Strawberry Ice Cream packed full of flavor! (Recipe adapted from Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream!)

Before Valentine’s Day this year I asked my husband what I could do for him that he would love the most. He told me he loves when I make him good food. I thought and researched for a while what I could make him that he would love and something that wouldn’t be complicated since I’m 9 months pregnant! I’ll share what I made for dinner on Thursday so be sure to check back! For  dessert I picked this recipe from the book Jeni’s Splended Ice Creams at Home. Have you heard of Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream? It’s crazy popular. I see it all the time featured on different shows on The Food Network, you can order it on-line and it’s also in grocery stores across the nation (my local grocery store, Harmon’s carries it.) So since I have heard so much about her ice cream I was so excited to try it!

I made the mixture on Friday to give it plenty of time to chill plus I try to keep things simple and easy lately by preparing ahead of time. It was seriously so fun to make! But you know me, I love to be in the kitchen! The first step is to roast the strawberries. I had never done that before and was curious how it would affect the strawberries. Just place the sliced strawberries in a small baking dish and sprinkle with sugar. You don’t roast it for very long and once it’s done it just looks juicier than before. This is an important step because by roasting the strawberries it evaporates some of the water and concentrates the flavor. Then this mixture is pureed along with lemon juice. Set it aside and move on to the next step.

This ice cream recipe was so different than a typical ice cream recipe. There is no egg yolks but it calls for a few ingredients you might not expect in ice cream like cream cheese, cornstarch and corn syrup. I was so curious how this would turn out since everything was so different in this ice cream making process than I have been used to. The mixture was very thick and that was a good thing! Also, I kept the recipe pretty much the same but added more strawberry puree to it because you can’t have too much strawberries in your strawberry ice cream. It was a great addition.

Valentine’s came and we churned it and once it was thick enough to taste we each sampled it and were blown away by the flavor! It’s crazy good you guys! It has so much flavor and is just the most perfect strawberry ice cream you will ever have!  This recipe is a keeper for sure and just might be our new Valentine’s Day tradition!

One Year Ago: Mini Beef & Cheese Empanadas

Two Years Ago: Mickey Mouse Chocolate Chip Cookies

Three Years Ago: Olive Garden’s Alfredo Sauce

Four Years Ago: Banana Crumble Snack Cake

Yield: About 1 quart

Roasted Strawberry & Buttermilk Ice Cream

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Ingredients

Roasted Strawberries

• 1 pint strawberries, hulled and sliced ½ inch thick
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (about 1 lemon)

Ice Cream Base

• 1 ½ cups whole milk
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 2 ounces (4 tablespoons) cream cheese, softened
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1 ¼ cups heavy cream
• 2 tablespoons light corn syrup
• 2/3 cup sugar
• ¼ cup buttermilk

Instructions

Prep

For the strawberries:

1. Preheat the oven to 375 F. Combine the strawberries with the sugar in an 8-inch square glass or ceramic baking dish, stirring gently to mix well. Roast for 8 minutes, or until just soft. Let cool slightly.
2. Puree the berries in a food processor with the lemon juice. Measure 1 cup of the pureed berries; refrigerate the rest of the puree for another use.

For the ice cream base:

1. Mix about 2 tablespoons of the milk with the cornstarch in a small bowl to make a slurry. Whisk the cream cheese and salt in a medium bowl until smooth.

COOK

1. Combine the remaining milk, the cream, sugar, and corn syrup in a 4-quart saucepan, bring to a rolling boil over medium-high heat, and boil for 4 minutes. Remove from the heat and gradually whisk in the cornstarch slurry. Bring the mixture to a boil over medium-high heat and cook, stirring with a heatproof spatula, until slightly thickened, about 1 minute. Remove from the heat.

CHILL

1. Gradually whisk the hot milk mixture into the cream cheese until smooth. Add the reserved 1 cup strawberry puree and the buttermilk and blend well. Place the mixture in an air-tight container and chill completely in the fridge at least two hours or overnight.

FREEZE

1. Pour the ice cream base into the frozen canister and spin until thick and creamy.
2. Pack the ice cream into a storage container, press a sheet of parchment directly against the surface, and seal with an airtight lid. Freeze in the coldest part of your freezer until firm, at least 4 hours.

Notes

*If you want to churn the ice cream right away prepare a large bowl with ice and water and pour the mixture into a 1-gallon Ziploc freezer bag and submerge the sealed bag in the ice bath. Let stand, adding more ice as necessary, until cold, about 30 minutes.