It’s strawberry season! That means there’s no better time to whip up a delicious homemade strawberry ice cream! This simple recipe will satisfy even the most critical of strawberry ice cream enthusiasts. There are two key ingredients I add to this recipe to really enhance that naturally great summer strawberry flavor.
Did you know that strawberry is the third most popular ice cream flavor in America? It is also the highest rated fruit flavor, as rank one and two are vanilla and chocolate respectively. So it is no wonder that when I decided to post a strawberry ice cream recipe on the site, I strived to make it the best it could possibly be.
After trying a few generic recipes online I decided on two specific ingredients that elevate the strawberry flavor to a most delicious level. These two ingredients are fresh lemon juice, and grated tonka bean. Does that last ingredient sound weird to you? In fact it is the star of my tonka bean ice cream, and one of my absolute favorite ice creams to make for friends. It also plays extremely well with fresh strawberries and brings out their natural flavor even more.
What You’ll Need
As with all of my ice cream recipes on Scoops of Delight, you need an ice cream machine. The exact style and brand does not matter too much but you do want one that is decent quality. I personally use the Smeg ice cream maker. The only issue with it is that you need to already have a Smeg stand mixer – which can be quite pricey. While there are plenty of recipes for no-churn ice creams, I often find a properly churned ice cream magnitudes better.
Some other things you will need for this homemade ice cream recipe are:
- Mixing Bowls
- Whisk
- Steel Pans (I personally find steel the best for making ice cream, but you can use any as long as you are careful about the temperature.
- Rubber Spatula
- Sealable Container (The best thing to use to store homemade ice cream is plastic in my opinion. You want something that is more flat than tall as it provides more surface area to quickly freeze in a home freezer).
- Kitchen Scale (optional, but recommended as almost all of my recipes use metric as it is more precise than imperial for most home cooks).
How To Make The Best Homemade Strawberry Ice Cream
Being such a simple and much loved ice cream flavor, I really wanted to keep things basic. That means as few ingredients as possible. Ok, it ended up having 9 ingredients (8 if you don’t add eggs), but most of the stuff you are likely to already have at home. One thing that I do recommending buying is some tonka beans as they have fantastic flavor and are useful in so many ice cream recipes.
Ingredients
500 grams Strawberries (you can use fresh or frozen – both work well in this recipe).
400 ml Heavy Cream (36%)
200 ml Milk (3.5%)
120 grams Sugar
3 Egg Yolks
1/2 tsp Salt
1 tbsp Lemon Juice (freshly squeezed)
1 Tonka Bean (microplaned, about 1 loose tsp)
The first step in making the best strawberry ice cream at home is to create a really concentrated strawberry syrup. If you were to just blend up a bunch of strawberries and mix them with the rest of the ingredients before churning, your final ice cream would taste quite diluted. To get the most strawberry flavor into your quart+ of ice cream you need to reduce the fruit as much as possible.
Place all the strawberries, de-stemmed and halved, into a pot. Add the sugar, salt and lemon juice and about 3 tbsp of water. Then put on low heat until the strawberries start to release their own juice. Raise the heat so the retained water starts to cook off.
This step takes quite a long time, but it is arguably the most important step when making strawberry ice cream. As you can see from the two photos above, I reduce the 500 grams of strawberries drastically. The final weight comes in around 150 grams and took about an hour to reduce. The fruit naturally breaks down completely during that time, but feel free to blitz it with an immersion blender if you still see chunks of strawberry in there. Once you are happy with the consistency add grated tonka bean and let cook another 5 minutes to fully combine.
In another bowl beat together the three egg yolks. Gently trickle in a bit of the hot strawberry syrup while whisking quickly to temper the yolks. This will cause the yolks to act as a thickener in the final ice cream.
Place the strawberry syrup in a large bowl. Add in the tempered eggs while whisking constantly. Then, while continuing to whisk, pour in the milk and heavy cream.
Move the strawberry ice cream base to a sealable jar or container and place in the fridge until completely chilled. You don’t want to make ice cream at home with a warm base as home machines are not as efficient as industrial ones – therefore chilling the base as much as possible is necessary for the best quality ice cream.
Churning The Ice Cream
When your base is fully chilled you can begin to churn your ice cream. Now, since everyone’s machines are different I recommend following your own machine’s instructions. For example my ice cream maker works best at the second slowest speed for 30 minutes. This differs when making gelato for example since then I do the slowest speed for 40-50 minutes on average.
When serving your homemade strawberry ice cream you can go as simple or decorated as you wish. I like to serve mine with some fresh strawberries and a few white nonpareils. You can add some strawberry or chocolate syrup, sprinkles, or put the ice cream in a sugar or waffle cone. Get creative with it, the best thing about ice cream is it is absolutely not a stuffy, pretentious dessert.
Tips To Making The Best Homemade Strawberry Ice Cream
- DO NOT add chopped up pieces of fresh strawberry to the ice cream. It sounds counterintuitive since many great ice creams have bits and pieces in there but here’s the reason; Strawberries have a high water content, while the rest of the ice cream has a high fat content. That means different freezing temperatures. You would end up with a smooth and creamy strawberry ice cream with random hard pockets of flavored frozen water throughout.
- Reduce your fresh strawberries as much as possible. The more you reduce the less water in your final ice cream. The less water the more concentrated that delicious strawberry flavor will be.
- If you are using fresh instead of frozen strawberries, it is best to ensure they were picked ripe rather than artificially ripened (like what you would find at most large grocery store chains). In this instance, frozen strawberries might actually be the better choice as they are picked ripe and flash frozen right away.
Strawberry Ice Cream
Equipment
- 1 Bowl
- 1 Ice Cream Machine
- 1 Sealable Container
- 1 Rubber Spatula
- 1 Pot/Pan
- 1 Whisk
- 1 Kitchen Scale | optional, but recommended
Ingredients
- 500 grams Strawberries you can use fresh or frozen – both work well in this recipe.
- 400 ml Heavy Cream 36%
- 200 ml Milk 3.5%
- 120 grams Sugar
- 3 Egg Yolks
- 1/2 tsp Salt
- 1 tbsp Lemon Juice freshly squeezed
- 1 Tonka Bean microplaned, about 1 loose tsp
Instructions
- Prep the strawberries by removing the stems and cutting them in half. Place them in a pot along with the sugar, salt, and lemon juice. Add a few tbsp of water and set on low heat. As the liquid from the strawberries gets pulled out, raise the heat.
- Cook the strawberries until they are severely reduced, about 1/4th or less of the original volume. The more concentrated the better, as there is less dilution of flavor in the final ice cream. When you have reached a good reduction add in the grated tonka bean and let infuse for 5 minutes. Then turn off the heat.
- Whisk together the egg yolks in a bowl.
- Gently trickle a bit of the hot strawberry reduction into the egg yolks while whisking constantly. When the eggs are tempered pour the egg mix right into the pot while whisking constantly, then pour the entire mix into a large bowl.
- Pour the milk and heavy cream into the bowl. Whisk everything together then move to a sealable container. Place in the fridge to chill completely.
- Add the chilled strawberry ice cream base to your machine and run according to your machines instructions.
- Move churned ice cream to a sealable container and place in the freezer until frozen. Then serve when ready.
Notes
Strawberry Ice Cream
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