I’ve said it here before, but I have a lot of love for my ice cream maker. While my homemade ice cream uses heavy cream and sugar and isn’t exactly a health food, it’s delicous, easy to make, and better than anything you’ll buy at the grocery store. The chocolate mint ice cream that I shared a few months ago is my favorite flavor, but in a house full of fruity dessert loves, my kids (and husband) have been requesting homemade strawberry ice cream. With all the strawberries coming out of our garden, I knew that I could whip it up using my favorite ice cream maker with very little effort.
This homemade strawberry ice cream can be yours with just 5 ingredients and a little bit of patience while you wait for it to freeze. Because this recipe only uses cream, milk, sugar, vanilla, and strawberries, it’s important to use the ripest, freshest strawberries you can find. I buy plenty of strawberries from the grocery store, but those berries aren’t going to be as sweet as locally grown berries that you find at your farmers markets or pick yourselves. You’re looking for a berry that is red and ripe all the way throughout it’s flesh, not white on the inside. This means it was ripened on the vine and you’ll maximize the strawberry flavor. If you can only get store-bought berries, that’s fine too! But you may not get as bright of a strawberry flavor in your homemade ice cream.
With the freshest strawberries, your ice cream will also be a beautiful pink color! But if you need more of a pink color, feel free to add a drop of red food coloring. A little will go a long way! I didn’t add any to my ice cream, but if you’re serving this for an occasion like a baby shower or birthday where you’re looking for more pink, some food coloring won’t change the flavor or texture. It’s all your personal preference!
You can certainly expect more ice cream flavors this summer–my boys are already requesting that mint chocolate chip is up next and I’m happy to oblige!
- 2 cups heavy cream
- 1 cup whole milk
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
- 1 cup strawberry puree*
- In a large bowl, whisk together cream, milk, sugar, vanilla, and strawberry puree. For the strawberry puree, simply take the freshest strawberries you can find and blend them until smooth using a food processor or high-speed blender. There's no need to strain the seeds.
- Cover tightly with plastic wrap and let refrigerate for at least 2 hours or until fully chilled.
- Meanwhile, make sure you're freezer bowl for your ice cream maker is frozen solid.
- When the mixture is chilled, assemble your ice cream maker and remove bowl from freezer. Carefully pour in the mixture and make the ice cream according to your ice cream maker's directions. If you are choosing to use red food coloring, add one drop during this step.
- When the ice cream is done, it will have the consistency of soft-serve. Transfer mixture to a freezer-safe container and freeze until solid.
- I like to let the ice cream soften for about 5 minutes before scooping and serving to make it easier on me but it's not necessary.
- Enjoy!
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