It’s blueberry season! Even though I can eat whole pints of these plain, I love to experiment with them and see what great desserts I can make. This time, I decided on ice cream. I love strawberry ice cream, so why not try to use blueberries instead? This would be amazing over a summer peach tart. 
This is not a super rich and creamy custard ice cream. There are no eggs in the recipe, and it takes much shorter to make…no boiling, cooking, thickening, and refrigerating needed. The blueberries, sugar, and lemon juice still have to macerate and make delicious purple juice, but it’s still easier than tempering eggs and a perfect recipe for you if you’re a beginner ice cream maker.
Ingredients:
- 3 cups fresh ripe blueberries, smashed
- 4 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice (yes, it has to be freshly squeezed. That bottled stuff is just not the same)
- 1-1/2 cup sugar, divided
- 2 cups whole milk
- 2 cups heavy cream
- 1-1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
Directions:
Make sure your freezer bowl is really frozen!
1. Combine blueberries, lemon juice, and 1/2 cup of sugar in a bowl. Stir and crush the berries. Let sit for at least two hours in the fridge.
2. In another bowl, whisk together the milk and sugar until the sugar dissolves. Add the heavy cream.
3. Strain the blueberries from the juice. Puree half the berries, if desired. (I didn’t do it – I don’t have a dishwasher, so skipping steps that make more dirty dishes is common around here.)
4. Add the juice to the milk mixture. Add the puree, if you pureed the berries.
5. Pour the mixture into your ice cream maker, and mix according to the ice cream maker’s directions. In the last five minutes of mixing, add the blueberries.
6. Transfer to an airtight container. I use those quart sized round plastic containers. they’re a dollar for three of them, and I always have them around for ice cream. i needed to use two for this recipe, though, because it didn’t fit in just one.
7. Freeze for at least 1/2 hour before serving.
Oops! exploding blueberry ice cream! Don’t walk away from the kitchen when the ice cream maker is on, or this might happen. The spinning part whips air into it, and this time the ice cream just grew bigger than the volume of the freezer bowl. I had a big mess to clean up after this, but the purple colored ice cream was definitely worth it – don’t you just love the color of this stuff? I do!
