Delicious Blackberry Ice Cream

We picked some blackberries and decided to make ice cream. I found a recipe on the Pioneer Woman Cooks Blog. You can see the step by step directions, extra tips and fabulous pictures here. I wasn't patient enough making the custard - mine was runny, so it's not nearly as creamy as I had hoped - but it is very good! We also ran out of ice and had to stop mixing it before it was done. We had it with our left over peach cobbler.

Delicious Blackberry Ice Cream

2 pints fresh blackberries
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1/4 cup sugar

1 1/2 cups half-and-half
1 cup sugar

5 large egg yolks

1 1/2 cups heavy cream

Add blackberries to a medium saucepan with 1/4 cup sugar and lemon juice. Cook over low heat, covered, for 20 to 25 minutes. Drain using a fine mesh strainer, pressing berries to extract as much juice/puree as possible. Set aside.

Heat half-and-half and 1 cup sugar in a separate saucepan over low heat. Turn off heat when mixture is totally heated.

Add heavy cream to a separate bowl.

Beat egg yolks by hand or with an electric mixer until yolks are pale yellow and slightly thick.

Temper the egg yolks by slowly drizzling in 1 1/2 cups of hot half-and-half mixture, whisking constantly. After that, pour the egg yolk/half-and-half mixture into the pan containing the rest of the half-and-half mixture. Cook over low to medium-low heat (depending on how hot your stove gets) until quite thick, stirring constantly. Drain custard using a fine mesh strainer, then pour into the bowl with the cream. Stir to combine.

Add blackberry juice/puree to the cream/custard mixture and stir. Chill mixture completely, then freeze in an ice cream maker until thick. Place container in freezer to harden for an additional two hours.

Evil Variation: Stir in semi-sweet chocolate chunks before freezing. Delicious!