Died and Gone to Heaven Blackberry Ice Cream

We had a fresh Blackberry Cobbler yesterday, and, yes, mine bubbled over the sides too. As you know, Max, our blackberries were planted by the former owners of our house and are thornless. That is great, except that they are also seedy as can be. Too seedy for jam, and almost too seedy for cobblers. The first couple of years, I made jelly, and syrup, and juice, and wine, and still there were more berries on the vines. Then I found a recipe in Sunset Magazine for Blackberry Ice Cream. It is one of the best ice creams we have ever tasted.

It is time consuming. You have to pick the berries, then make the Sauce and chill it before you can start the actual ice cream, but wait until you taste the results.

Blackberry Ice Cream Sauce:

2 ½ quarts fresh blackberries
1 2/3 cups sugar
1 cup of water

In large sauce pan, bring the sugar and water to a boil. Stir until sugar is completely dissolved. Set aside and let cool 10 minutes.

Wash, pick over, and drain the blackberries. Puree berries in a blender. Rub the berries through a fine strainer into a bowl. Do a little at a time and be sure to press out as much pulp as possible. This can be slow. I use a wooden spoon to press the berry mixture against the mesh of the strainer and keep pressing until no more puree will come out. Discard the seeds. They should be very dry. This should give you about 6 cups of puree.

Mix the puree with the sugar syrup. Chill for up to a day ahead.

Blackberry Ice Cream:

Mix 5 cups of the puree with 1 2/3’s cup of cold whipping cream.

Pour into an ice cream maker. (Depending on the capacity, you may have to make 2 batches. No problem as the mixture keeps fine for a day or so in the refrigerator.)

Process until the mixture is firm enough to scoop, which is about 30 minutes with most makers.

Store in plastic freezer containers for up to a week. Lick off the dasher as a reward to the maker.

To serve, scoop into a pretty clear glass bowl or sherbet glass. This is rich so two small scoops from a ice cream scoop are plenty. Drizzle over some of the remaining 1 cup of blackberry puree, and a few fresh berries.

A very plain sugar or almond cookie goes well with this.

About 7 to 8 cups.

I suppose you could do the same with other berries like raspberries or strawberries, but we never have enough of those to try it.