Strawberry Swirl Vanilla Ice Cream

As I mentioned in my Salted Caramel Ice Cream with Salted Caramel Shards I have recently worked on a super fun article for Whisk Magazine which was published on Wednesday, June 20. Today I am sharing with you a Strawberry Swirl Vanilla Ice Cream, part 2 of the 3 part post series. In each post, I will share different tips and ice cream recipes that I shared with the Whisk readers. In the Salted Caramel Post I shared 'Have Your Equipment Ready' and 'Making an Ice Cream without an Ice Cream Maker'. Today there will be a couple other tidbits that will demystify ice cream making.

Fruity ice cream 
I love most if not all fruit in ice creams in their natural state. I find the cooking process alters the flavor of the fruit especially when I wish to capture in seasonal fruit at its best. My choice of handling fruit in ice creams is macerating the fruit in sugar and then pureeing. This can be done a couple days ahead. For fruit that tends to get oxidized and turn dark, I would add a couple drops of lemon. The best way of having this particular strawberry and vanilla is by scooping it into a soft serve cone, I buy organic, and licking the strawberry swirl with the vanilla for full effect of texture and flavor! True. I am not sensationalizing it with an evocative description! :)

Customize 
Don’t shy away from substituting the strawberries with other berries such as cherries or blueberries or any other seasonal fruit such as stone fruit in the summer time. You can completely incorporate the puree to make a strawberry ice cream, instead of a swirl if you wish. Add chocolate chips, crushed cookies or cookie dough to the vanilla custard base instead of a fruity swirl. All add ons should be mixed in in the last few seconds of churning. I also do not like using a vanilla bean in fruit swirl ice creams but I do use a vanilla bean in a plain vanilla ice cream or one mixed in with chocolate chips, crushed cookies or cookie dough.

Love Rum Raisin? About Alcohol and Ice Cream
Any unflavored or flavored liquor will add a flavor dimension to your ice cream, but will also make it softer as alcohol does not freeze. One or two tablespoons will do the trick but I have been known to go a tad overboard with my rum raisin ice cream. I would discourage you from adding liquors to parve ice creams.

In other news: on Wednesday, June 27, this week, was kind of cool  to see my photo chosen by The Los Angeles Times Food Daily Dish: 50 Shades of  Food: Warm, Gooey jalapeno cheese bread Food Porn
Please feel free to link up your 2012 ice creams in the comment section. Follow and join the conversations on twitter @foodwanderings, befriend Shulie Foodwanderings on FB, Like FoodWanderings FB page and oh I love Pinterest too, Shulie Madnick!

Churn and gear up for The 4th of July!

Strawberry Swirl Vanilla Ice Cream

Ingredients:
1 ½ cups whole milk
1 ½ cups heavy whipping cream
5 egg yolks
1 ½ teaspoons pure vanilla bean
¾ cup sugar
*This vanilla base can be used in many flavor variations.

Strawberries Puree

Ingredients:
2 cups fresh or frozen strawberries
¼ cup sugar (4 tablespoons)

Cut stems off the strawberries and slice. Add sugar, mix and refrigerate. Mix again an hour later or whenever you remember and let macerate until all sugar is completely dissolved while refrigerated. Puree through a food processor and refrigerate. This strawberries puree can be made a couple of days in advance and stored in an air tight container refrigerated.

In a non reactive medium sauce pan with a heavy bottom, pour 1 ½ cups milk, 1 ½ tsp pure vanilla extract and ¾ cups sugar. Mix milk, vanilla and sugar with a heat resistant rubber spatula or a wooden spoon, and keep on low/medium heat until milk starts bubbling around the edges of the pot.

While milk and sugar is warming up, whisk the egg yolks in a medium heat resistant bowl. Once milk starts bubbling around the edges of the pan, add in a few increments about ½ cup of the warm milk into the egg yolks while constantly whisking the yolks. Whisking the warm milk into egg yolks makes sure the yolks won’t curdle. This process is called tempering.

Add the tempered yolk mixture into the milk sauce pan and continue whisking on low/medium heat for about 10 minutes. Remove from heat, let cool and add the whipping cream*, mix, let cool and refrigerate for a few hours until chilled or overnight.

Strain chilled ice cream base through a sieve and churn in an ice cream maker according to manufacturer’s directions. If you do not own an ice cream maker, look at the 1st post in this series, Salted Caramel Ice Cream with Salted Caramel Shards, for alternate directions.

Scoop a few scoops of ice cream into a storage container, then add a layer of the strawberry puree on top of the ice cream layer and so forth until you get 4-6 layers total. Layer a thin layer of the Strawberry puree in between each vanilla layer. With a butter knife gently swirl the ice cream layers.

Soft serve after churning or freeze for a minimum of four hours. If ice cream is frozen overnight or for a few days, allow it to thaw on counter for 10 minutes before scooping. Dip ice cream scooper in cold or lukewarm water before scooping.  This ice cream tastes sensational!

*Alternatively let the milk custard base chill and then strain. Whip the heavy whipping cream with an electric egg beater or in a Kitchen Aid mixer until it reaches a very soft peak. Fold heavy whipping cream into the strained milk custard base until fully incorporated and proceed to churn and follow directions as directed for swirling the strawberry puree and freezing instructions. This will make ice cream airier, fluffier and lighter in color ice cream.I like my ice cream chiffon-like!

27 comments:

  1. Yum! Great tips too! Congrats again on the article!

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  2. Can I have a scoop please? This ice cream looks ever so tempting...

    Cheers,

    Rosa

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  3. Contratulations on the article. I enjoyed this post. There's good advice here and your photos are always wonderful.

    My current favourite ice cream is the rhubarb custard recipe I make with rhubarb kindly shared by one of my co-workers. You can find the recipe at http://auntbbudget.blogspot.ca/2012/05/rhubarb-custard-ice-cream.html.

    Thank you for the opportunity to share the link.

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    1. TY. Ooh rhubarb custard sound awesome. Thx for link I will check when Internet is back.

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  4. There it is again, taunting me. I wish I could reach through the screen for the scoop... of ice cream, what did you think I meant?! ;)

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  5. Such a simple yet fancy swirly flavor. Love it! And the salted caramel is callin' my name too. Like, LOUD, almost yelling my name!

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    1. Ahaha I can hear the salted caramel screaming from the other virtual page want to jump in!

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  6. Wow, I can't help drooling. I just love ice cream
    Well done Shulie!
    If you submitted your strawberry swirl vanilla ice cream photos to http://www.foodporn.net , I'll bet they will make you on the home page.
    Gosh, you have made me sooo hungry !

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    1. TY Catherine would totally look at page when my Internet is back up.

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  7. I'm with Rachel and wish I could reach through the screen and grab that delicious cone. I forgot how wonderful strawberry swirl ice cream could be. You've inspired me to get busy making ice cream when I get home. Today we are making some peach gelato:)

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  8. Lovely lovely ice cream - I am off to get me some fresh strawberries. Congrats on the article!

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  9. Thank you dear Meeta. If you mix it all together it will work too. If you like the creamy consistency all around as the fruit has, as you know, a high sogar content.:) I live it both ways swirl or not.

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  10. Love the look of your swirl ice cream. So simple, fun, and innocent!

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    1. Love your description of the ice cream. I could not put it any better.

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  11. Congratulations on the article, Shulie. That is so well-deserved! You included some great tips here.

    As an aside, I am thinking of you right now. I know you guys are without power and are moving to a hotel. Let's hope they get things restored as quickly as possible!

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    1. Thank you so much Dara. They are on my street now way past midnight. Crossing my fingers!

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  12. Mmmm....fresh strawberries and homemade vanilla ice cream is like a taste of summer.

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  13. I made it and It was THE PERFECT SCOOP I have ever had!!! Its a keeper...

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    1. Aw TY Shobana. Great to hear. It's funny the texture, flavors & level of sweetness is exactly how I was set to achieve. So happy you liked it too.

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  14. Oh great looking article, Shulie! And that ice cream is beautiful!

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  15. Shulie, this looks and sounds so exquisite... I love that we can use the base for other ice cream recipes!

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