Three Berry Custard

Mmmm
There are reasons that I shouldn’t go to garage sales. Mostly, I have a ton of stuff already and don’t need more, but a woman specifically advertised she had a VCR for $15 plus an electric griddle for $5. So I thought ok I won’t look around I’ll just say, “Hi, we talked about the VCR and griddle” and leave. But when I got there, I instead said, “Hi, we talked about the VCR and griddle. Is that an ice cream maker?” Long story short I now have a Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker. Really it only costs about $45 now, but I got it for $15. That was on Saturday and last night Dave and I attempted an ice cream creation.

How three berries? After reading around on various blogs and cookbooks, I thought I'd make a strawberry ice cream. Unfortunately, some of the strawberries were a bit questionable. So I pulled one of the little bags of frozen blackberries my mom gave me out of the freezer and decided to use them as well. Then I decided that if I was doing this I might as well go all out, and decided to turn it into a bit of a custard. When everything had been combined and was ready to go into the freezer, I decided it was a little too sweet. So we tossed in a bit of cranberry juice - unsweetened, 100% cranberry juice.

Into the Freezer There were some issues getting it into the freezer to cool down. Or at least I thought there were, Dave maintains that it was stable. I still think it looked precarious, maybe it was just the angle I was at.

And the finished product was pretty good. Dave thought it had too much cranberry juice; I thought it was just enough. Oh well, I just have to remember to account for how sweet the berries are in the final sugar estimation.

1 pint berries
juice of half a lime
3/4 c sugar
2 c heavy whipping cream
1 c whole milk
3 egg yolks
2 T cranberry juice

Hull strawberries and slice. In small bowl combine strawberries, blackberries, 1/4 sugar, and lime juice. Let macerate for one hour.

Beat egg yolks. In small saucepan combine milk, cream and remainder of sugar. Over low heat cook bring to simmer. While beating the eggs yolks and going slowly, pour 1/2 of the cream into the egg yolks (be careful - you don't want scrambled eggs). Once mixed pour egg/cream mix into the remaining cream. But saucepan back on burner. Over medium heat cook until thick - coats the back of a spoon. Take off heat.

Put 1/2 the berries in a blender, with the juices. Blend until smooth. Pour berries into egg and cream mix. If you want results like mine, make sure the gasket on your blender is broken (see above picture). Stir together and set in freezer to chill.

Once cool pour into ice cream maker for ~25 minutes. At the ~20 min mark add the remaining berries. Eat!