Lets travel back, waaaaaaay back in time to say, oh, how about Valentine’s Day?  Actually a few weeks before, just to be exact, when Michael asked me what I wanted to do for V-Day.

“We shouldn’t do anything for Valentine’s Day.  In stead we should save up buy an ice cream maker and make ice cream for Valentine’s Day!”

I may have pestered him a little about my sudden desire to make ice cream (and I may not have admitted that this desire sprung from all the rumblies I get in my tumbly when I’m browsing Pinterest and have to fight the desire to try and eat my computer screen).  I claim that the pestering stopped at Valentine’s…he claimed I just kept on going.  And, lets face it, he’s probably right.

So my birthday rolls around at the end of February as it always does, and, after dinner, Michael retrieves this huge package from his car.  I’m looking at it trying to figure out what the heck it is for what seems like forever before I finally get to open it.  Apparently my “hinting” was so subtle that I forgot I was doing it, because I was totally surprised by it.

And seriously: Best Gift Ever.

I’ve given a few different recipes a try at this point.  Of course, right after I got it I had to start scanning the shelves at work for ice cream making books.  In the end I purchased three of them, but today I’m going to talk about only one of them because I haven’t actually gotten around to trying the other two yet.  Shhhh….I’ve only had my maker for a month and I’m much better at resisting my ice cream addiction than I am at resisting my book addiction.

Ben & Jerry’s Homemade Ice Cream & Dessert Book is actually quite fantastic and if you’re starting out learning to make ice cream I highly recommend it.  Their recipes are easy, and I honestly really love the cartoons/stories on the side panels.  Especially the one about breaking the Heath bars, but I’m going to make you go get your own copy for that one (magical Amazon link–> KAPOW!)

Alright, so…to the topic at hand!

Strawberry Ice Cream!

What you’ll need:

• 2 large eggs
• 2 cups heavy or whipping cream
• 1 cup milk
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 pint fresh strawberries, hulled and sliced
• 1/3 cup sugar
• Juice of 1/2 lemon

Step 1: Combine Strawberries, sugar and lemon juice and refrigerate for at least an hour.  Do this in a mixing bowl big enough that you can mash them in when Step 2 rolls around…also, make sure you’ve got room for them in the fridge (such an easy thing to remember, but I always end up doing the refrigerator shuffle…)

Step 2: Prepare what Ben and Jerry call their Sweet Cream Base.  They actually have 3 different options, and I’m using #1 because they say it’s the most popular (Also, I’ve used it three times now and it is delicious).

1. Whisk the eggs until fluffy for 1 to 2 minutes.
2. Whisk in the sugar, a little at a time, and keep whisking about a minute more until it’s completely blended (I like having someone else slowly pour the sugar in for me so I can keep whisking as it’s being added, but that might just be a me thing)
3. Pour in Cream and milk and whisk to blend.

Stick this in the fridge while you’re doing the next step so it stays cold.

Step 3: Mash the strawberries into a puree.

You see how the strawberries are trying to escape the bowl?  That’s why I suggested the big bowl.  You don’t want any escapees.

Then take that puree and mix it into the sweet cream base.  It should look like this(only less dark…my phone camera hates me):

 

Step 4: Transfer to your ice cream maker and freeze following the instructions that come with your maker.  At the bottom of the page the book says “makes 1 generous quart” and in this particular case I’m going to give you a warning.

You see that?  You see how full that ice cream maker is???  THAT IS WAY TOO FULL!!!  You notice how I just wrote that all in caps like I’m trying to yell through type?  That’s because that ice cream maker IS WAY TOO FULL!!! and I wish I could go back to the past and tell myself, “don’t do it Angela.  Juuuust don’t do it.”  So those caps are really hollering at my past self who though, “Meh, it’ll be fine.”

Because it wont be fine.  It’ll be super messy to clean up.  So.  You, you wonderful direction reading ice cream making person you, yeah, you on the receiving end of the computer who is reading this right now: read your manufacturer’s directions and listen to them.  When they say max fill at 2/3 ish, listen to them because as ice cream freezes it also collects air which means what?  It means that it grows; it gets bigger; it becomes like a delicious air eating amoeba that WILL start seeping over the sides.  So please.  Do yourself a favor.  This is a large recipe.  You added an entire pint of super yummy strawberries into that sweet cream base, just save some of the mix and freeze some more tomorrow, because it just doesn’t work.  No.  I don’t have an actual picture of what happened, because I was too frantically trying to clean it up.

But here’s a recreation thanks to Microsoft Paint:

Seriously…my mom came over and was all like “Can I try it yet?”  And I was like “yes, please have a bowl no wait have two bowls gaaaah there’s ice cream everywhere!!!”  Imagine that statement with some arm flailing because that (clearly) makes it more dramatic.  My solution was to start scooping some off of the top and filling bowls with it, but I still ended up with a mess and also I’m pretty certain that you’re not supposed to scoop out of the ice cream maker while it’s running.  Safety Hazard.  So…heed my advice and don’t overfill.

Once the ice cream is done (my maker normally finished in about 20 to 25 mins, yours might be different) scoop it all into a freezable tupperware/gladware/whatever and cover the top of it with either a piece of plastic wrap (that’s what I’ve been using) or wax paper.  You’re going to want to place this directly on the ice cream.  You don’t have to smoosh it around and make a mess, you just want to keep there from being an air barrier so the top doesn’t get all crystally or freeze over or anything.  Also, once the maker is off you’re going to want to scoop it in with some speed so that it doesn’t start melting before it gets in the freezer because then it’s like a block of ice.  After you plastic wrap it then put the tupperware lid on and stick it in the freezer.

Most of my recipe books recommend freezing it for about 2 to 4 hours.  I’d recommend the 4 over the 2 because 2 might still be a little soupy.

After you’ve refrozen it for several hours, then take it out of the freezer, scoop, and enjoy! (And remember to put the plastic wrap back on if you don’t eat it all…trust me, it helps).