Blackberry Ice Cream

 

This is a Ree Drummond recipe. A very, very berry flavored recipe. Sweet ,creamy and delicious. It does call for eggs, which I made sure to heat to at least 160 degrees to avoid any potential raw egg related problems. She also makes hers with semi sweet chocolate...I made half with and half without.

Ingredients:

2 pints of fresh blackberries
1-1/4 c.Sugar
1-1/2c Half and half
Juice of half a lemon
1-1/2 c. Cream
5 egg yolks
4 oz.Semi sweet chocolate( I used good old Nestlé chocolate chips)

In a saucepan, combine the berries, 1/4 c of sugar and the lemon juice. Cook over medium heat for about 20 minutes, until the berries break down and become syrupy.strain into a bowl, pressing down on the berries with a spoon to extract all of the juice.Set aside to cool.
 

In another saucepan, combine the half and half and remaining cup of sugar. Over low-medium heat, mix together until sugar dissolves.
  In a small bowl, whisk the egg yolks until pale yellow and thick. Take a small amount of the half and half mixture and add it to the yolks, while whisking. This will temper the eggs so they do not curdle. Then add the entire yolk mixture back into the half and half mixture, and cook, whil stirring, until it becomes thickened, about 5 minutes(this is the custard mixture)....I also used a thermometer here to make sure my mixture reached 160 degrees in order to avoid any egg issues.
 

Strain the mixture into a bowl. Add the heavy cream to the berry juice, then add the custard mixture. Mix well. (At this point, I strained it again, so that the texture would be smooth). Place the mixture into two plastic containers and refrigerate for at least one hour.
 

 Using half of the mixture at a time, pour into an ice cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturer's directions( usually about 20 minutes). Remove and spoon into a container and freeze until firm( at least one hour). If adding chocolate, do so at this point ,then freeze.

 Enjoy!