Strawberry Frozen Custard & Strawberry Sauce
In the summertime, there’s no better treat than a scoop (or three!) of frozen custard. It never fails to remind us of the weekends we spent at the family cabin as children. We have vivid memories of our grandfathers using rock salt and hand-cranked, wooden ice cream makers to churn the stuff.
Frozen custard is basically ice cream made with a bunch of egg yolks, which help keep ice crystals from forming as it freezes and give it a luxe, silky texture. It comes out of the churn like a super rich soft serve — creamy-sweet and absolutely scrumptious.
For this recipe, you make a vanilla frozen custard base, and then churn a puréed strawberry sauce into it. The bright, red strawberries turn the custard a cheerful pink, and their sweet-tart flavor is a wonderful complement to all that cream.
Tip: Once you’ve mastered the vanilla frozen custard base, you can mix all kinds of goodies into it, from chocolate sauce to cookie dough and sour cherries to cinnamon sugar.
Yields: 1 quart
Preparation time: 30 mins (plus 2 hours to chill custard)
Active cooking time: 20 mins
Ice cream machine time: 20 mins
Ingredients
For the strawberry sauce:
1 pound fresh strawberries, hulled and chopped
¾ cup sugar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
For the frozen custard:
2 cups heavy cream
¾ cup whole milk
½ teaspoon vanilla extract or 1 whole vanilla bean
5 egg yolks
½ cup sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
Directions
- To make the strawberry sauce: In a medium saucepan, combine all the ingredients for the strawberry sauce over medium heat. Bring them to a simmer for 30 minutes.
- Mash the fruit with a potato masher and simmer for another 10 minutes.
- Allow the sauce to cool for 10 minutes, and then transfer it to a blender and puree. Set aside.
- To make the custard: In a medium pot, combine the heavy cream, whole milk and vanilla over medium heat. Bring it to a simmer, whisking intermittently. Note: This can take up to 20 minutes. Try not to rush this process or you’ll overheat the cream.
- While the cream is heating, combine the egg yolks, sugar and salt in a separate bowl and whisk vigorously until they have about doubled in size or become a little frothy and pale.
- Once the cream is simmering, remove it from the heat and allow it to cool for about 10 minutes.
- Remove the vanilla bean from the cream and discard. Pour the cream into the egg yolks in a slow, steady stream, whisking continuously until they’re fully incorporated.
- Transfer the custard mixture to the sauce pot and warm it over medium low heat, stirring gently, until the mixture thickens slightly and coats the back of a spoon
- Transfer the custard to the bowl to cool. Once it is at room temperature, put it in the refrigerator to cool for at least 1 hour.
- If you’re not going to use it immediately, custard can be stored in the fridge for up to 3 days.
- Pour the custard mixture into an ice cream machine and churn until thick, about 12-15 minutes.
- Working in batches, churn half of the strawberry sauce into the custard.
- Serve directly from the ice cream machine for soft serve, or put it in the freezer to firm up, about 6 hours. Garnish with scoops of strawberry sauce and enjoy!