Now that the whirlwind of packing, moving, working, unpacking, cleaning, etc. is settling down, I'm finally looking to start exploring and finding sights in the current hometown. Unfortunately, this weekend was not all that great weather wise - high likelihood of awesome thunderstorms all weekend. Actually, Thursday through Sunday - and one of Thursday evenings storms actually brought hail with it.
Not sure where entirely the idea came from, but strawberry picking seemed like a fun idea since I haven't done it in years. Not since I was a kid I believe.
After doing some research online, Springdale Farms in Cherry Hill was my place of choice. All in all, my loot for the day was 6+ pounds of fresh picked straweberries!
The vast majority of those 6+ pounds have been cleaned, diced up and frozen for used in future recipes.
Since A - the greatest BFF ever! - gave me an ice cream maker for my birthday last year, some homemade fresh picked strawberry ice cream seemed like a good first strawberry related concoction.
I didn't want to just do vanilla ice cream with chucks of strawberries. I search online and found several recipes, but the one I settled on is most similar to the vanilla custard ice cream that was my standard go-to recipe last year.
Adapted from Emile Lagasse's Fresh Strawberry Ice Cream Recipe
- 4 cups fresh strawberries, washed, hulled and diced
- 1.5 cups Sugar in the Raw
- 2 cups half and half
- 2 cups heavy cream
- 0.5 vanilla bean, split in half
- 6 egg whites
In a blender, combine the 4 cups strawberries with 0.5 cup of the sugar and processed until smooth.
In a bowl, separate the 6 egg yolks, whisking the yolks together and reserving the egg whites in a separate container (the egg whites, along with some sauteed onion and diced basil, made for some tasty scrambled eggs for breakfast Sunday morning).
In a saucepan, combine the remaining 1 cup sugar, half and half, heavy cream and vanilla bean.
I have found that just cutting a slit in the bean,opening it up and placing it into the mix, combined with the head the mixing action of a metal whisk is enough to not only bring out the flavor from the bean, but release it's specks as well.
Heat the mixture to a simmer. Add a cup or so of the liquid to the egg yolks, mixing until smooth, and then added it to the saucepan, whisking until well incorporated. Bring the mixture back to a simmer and cook for 5-6 minutes.
Remove from the heat and let sit for approximately 20 minutes - this allows the vanilla flavor to more fully infuse into the mixture. Strain the mixture to remove any clumps.
Combine the mixture with the strawberries and sugar, mixing until fully incorporated.
Cool the mixture completely - I tend to make my mix at night and then leave it in the fridge until the next day when I'm ready to make the ice cream.
Process the mixture according to your ice cream maker's instructions.
Not sure where entirely the idea came from, but strawberry picking seemed like a fun idea since I haven't done it in years. Not since I was a kid I believe.
After doing some research online, Springdale Farms in Cherry Hill was my place of choice. All in all, my loot for the day was 6+ pounds of fresh picked straweberries!
The vast majority of those 6+ pounds have been cleaned, diced up and frozen for used in future recipes.
Since A - the greatest BFF ever! - gave me an ice cream maker for my birthday last year, some homemade fresh picked strawberry ice cream seemed like a good first strawberry related concoction.
I didn't want to just do vanilla ice cream with chucks of strawberries. I search online and found several recipes, but the one I settled on is most similar to the vanilla custard ice cream that was my standard go-to recipe last year.
Adapted from Emile Lagasse's Fresh Strawberry Ice Cream Recipe
- 4 cups fresh strawberries, washed, hulled and diced
- 1.5 cups Sugar in the Raw
- 2 cups half and half
- 2 cups heavy cream
- 0.5 vanilla bean, split in half
- 6 egg whites
In a blender, combine the 4 cups strawberries with 0.5 cup of the sugar and processed until smooth.
In a bowl, separate the 6 egg yolks, whisking the yolks together and reserving the egg whites in a separate container (the egg whites, along with some sauteed onion and diced basil, made for some tasty scrambled eggs for breakfast Sunday morning).
In a saucepan, combine the remaining 1 cup sugar, half and half, heavy cream and vanilla bean.
I have found that just cutting a slit in the bean,opening it up and placing it into the mix, combined with the head the mixing action of a metal whisk is enough to not only bring out the flavor from the bean, but release it's specks as well.
Heat the mixture to a simmer. Add a cup or so of the liquid to the egg yolks, mixing until smooth, and then added it to the saucepan, whisking until well incorporated. Bring the mixture back to a simmer and cook for 5-6 minutes.
Remove from the heat and let sit for approximately 20 minutes - this allows the vanilla flavor to more fully infuse into the mixture. Strain the mixture to remove any clumps.
Combine the mixture with the strawberries and sugar, mixing until fully incorporated.
Cool the mixture completely - I tend to make my mix at night and then leave it in the fridge until the next day when I'm ready to make the ice cream.
Process the mixture according to your ice cream maker's instructions.
