I scream, you scream...

My lovely little sister, Savannah, is visiting from her current residence in Kigali, Rwanda, and we've so enjoyed spending time together. One of our favorite "sister activities" is cooking (of course) so we spent part of Saturday in the kitchen making strawberry ice cream. Neither of us are huge sweets fans, but ice cream is tough to resist. I could've eaten the entire quart we made on my own!

Vanna's Strawberry Ice Cream

ingredients:
1 3/4 cups heavy cream
3 long strips fresh lemon zest
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1 lb strawberries (3 cups), trimmed and quartered
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

Combine cream, zest, and salt in a heavy saucepan and bring just to a boil. Remove from heat and discard zest.
Whisk eggs with 1/2 cup sugar in a bowl, then add hot cream in a slow stream, whisking. Pour back into saucepan and cook over moderately low heat, stirring constantly, until slightly thickened and an instant-read thermometer registers 170°F. Do not let the mixture boil. You will know the custard is ready when it coats the back of a spoon.
Immediately pour custard through a fine sieve into a metal bowl, then cool to room temperature, stirring occasionally. Chill, covered, until cold, about 2 hours, and up to 1 day. (You can speed up this process by placing the metal bowl in an ice bath and vigorously stirring the custard.)
While custard is chilling, purée strawberries with remaining 1/4 cup sugar and lemon juice in a blender until smooth, then add to the chilled custard.







If you dislike strawberry seeds in your ice cream you may force the pureed strawberries through a fine sieve before adding to the custard.

Freeze in ice-cream maker, then transfer to an airtight container and put in freezer to harden.



Unfortunately I don't have a picture of the completed ice cream. My camera battery ran down, then I couldn't find the charger, and it turned into one of those things. Oh well! The finished product was beautiful, creamy, and retained the gorgeous color you can see in the photographs above. We served it with fresh strawberry slices on top.

Savannah really did all of the work on the ice cream. I simply photographed and sampled at various stages...not a bad job to have! It really did turn out to be quite delicious. It was very light and had a super fresh taste that you just can't get from ice cream purchased at the store. I think it would be absolutely delicious as the filling for an ice cream sandwich. I may make it again soon along with some chocolate/vanilla shortbread cookies. A neopolitan ice cream sandwich would be so cute and yummy.

Finally, a few tips on storing homemade ice cream. I always place a sheet of plastic wrap on top of the surface of the ice cream so there is no air between it and the plastic wrap. This prevents freezer burn (which is just the development of large ice crystals that occurs when air gets into the ice cream). Also, storing the ice cream in the back of the freezer will keep it fresher for longer. Not that you'll have this for very long...