Although winter is upon us we can still feel the warmth of summer and all that our garden provided for us this past season, an abundance of berries!!It is without a doubt that eating them just as is would be satisfying enough but to make a pie or ice cream would only add to their beauty and flavor. Delightful by themselves but even more inviting when made into something just a bit more.
These are wild red raspberries (Rubus Idaeus) found around in fields and woods in late summer. Unlike blackberries or raspberries from a bush, these berries are from a shrub and offer a tart, sweet, delicate flavor and when fully ripened they have a balanced sweetness that is a wonderful compliment when folded into a classic vanilla ice cream. A vibrant ruby red coloring gives away to soft fruit swirls that are never overly sweet or overpowering but rather a soft compliment to the creaminess of the frozen custard. The fruit freezes on its own allowing for crunchy bits of red raspberry ice through out eat bite. Amazingly it is summer in a spoon.
red raspberry and vanilla ice cream
1 -quart
30 minutes to overnight
Ingredients
1 3/4 cups heavy cream
3/4 cup milk
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 Madagascar vanilla bean (cut length-wise, seeds scraped out)
5 egg yolks
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups wild red raspberries
Instructions
- Place the cream, milk, 1/4 cup of the sugar, salt and halved vanilla bean with seeds in a sauce pan set over medium heat.
- When the ingredients begin to just form bubbles around the edge of the pan remove from heat and set aside to allow all of the vanilla flavoring to extract into the cream.
- Whisk the egg yolks in a bowl and add remaining 1/4 cup of sugar whisking until smooth.
- Ladle a small amount of the hot cream mixture into the egg yolks stirring continuously so the eggs do not break and scramble. Continue until all of the egg yolks have been incorporated into the cream mixture.
- Place the saucepan over medium-low heat stirring with a heat proof spatula or wooden spoon being careful to not curdle the mixture.
- The custard is done when a clean line forms when you run your finger across the back of the spoon and it is thickened.
- Stir in the vanilla extract and pour the custard with the vanilla bean into a clean bowl set over ice to insure quicker cooling. Set aside. Refrigerate up to one hour or overnight.
- When ready to churn the custard into ice cream, remove and scrape all of the vanilla seeds from the pod and discard the pod making sure to keep all of the seeds in the custard.
- Churn your ice cream in an ice cream maker of your choice until the consistency is smooth and somewhat firm. Remove the paddle from the ice cream bowl and carefully add the wild red raspberries into the frozen custard blending carefully with a spoon.
- Scoop the ice cream into a container and freeze until firm.
thoughts
Remember the longer the ice cream freezes the harder it gets and the berries will also freeze up and become crunchy and icy which makes for an interesting combination of flavors and textures.
