Strawberry Ice Cream

Ice cream is always in season, and strawberry ice cream is a perennial favorite. Using fresh fruit makes for a dessert with lots of berry flavor that can be dressed up or down depending on your audience. Douse a scoop of the pink ice cream with hot fudge sauce, sweetened whipped cream and mini marshmallows for kiddos. Drizzle the strawberry treat with aged balsamic vinegar, then garnish it with a sprig of basil for a sweet finish to date night. Or, scoop it into homemade choux pastry to make profiteroles for an elegant dinner party.

Ingredients for Strawberry Ice Cream

• Heavy whipping cream: Heavy cream and heavy whipping cream are slightly different but similar enough that either one can be used successfully in strawberry ice cream recipes. We specifically use heavy whipping cream for this one.
• Whole milk: You need the right amount of fat to make great ice cream, so make sure to use whole milk here.
• Sugar: Regular granulated sugar is all you need to sweeten this recipe for strawberry ice cream.
• Lemon juice: A little lemon juice brings out the best in other fruits. For the finest results, squeeze it fresh. If you love lemon, you could rinse the fruit, zest it prior to squeezing and also add the zest to the ice cream mixture.
• Vanilla extract: Have you made our homemade vanilla extract? It would be wonderful in this recipe. If not, make sure you’re using real vanilla and not the imitation version.
• Salt: A little salt will round out the flavors in the strawberry ice cream recipe and make them sing. If you’re using kosher salt, add an extra little pinch.
• Strawberries: Get the reddest, ripest, juiciest berries you can find. They’ll make the most fragrant ice cream.

Directions

Step 1: Make the ice cream mix

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In a large bowl, whisk together the cream, milk, sugar, lemon juice, vanilla and salt until combined. Stir in the mashed strawberries. Cover and refrigerate one hour.

Step 2: Freeze the ice cream

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Fill the cylinder of your ice cream maker no more than two-thirds full of strawberry mixture. (Refrigerate any extra until you’re ready to freeze it.) Freeze according to the manufacturer’s directions.

Editor’s Tip: Depending on your ice cream maker, you may need to refreeze the bowl after making a batch. In that case, if you do have extra mix, you’ll need to wait a day to freeze the remainder.

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Transfer the ice cream to freezer-safe storage containers, allowing headspace so that the ice cream can expand as it chills. Freeze until the ice cream is firm, two to four hours, before serving.

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Strawberry Ice Cream Variations

• Add other fruits: Strawberries are friendly with most other fruits, so don’t hesitate to mix things up. Replace 1 cup strawberries with 1 cup blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, banana, fresh peach pieces or another favorite fruit.
• Skip the churning: No ice cream maker? No problem. Just follow our clever process for whipping up ice cream with a hand mixer. We also have an even lower-tech ice cream in a bag method.
• Go nuts with mix-ins: Many classic mix-ins work super well with strawberry ice cream recipes. Some of the best include chocolate chips or chunks, sliced almonds, hunks of store-bought edible cookie dough or crushed cookies like Oreos. For the best results, add the mix-ins toward the end of the churning process.

How to Store Strawberry Ice Cream

Choose freezer-safe storage containers for your ice cream and make sure to fill each one around two-thirds full, as the ice cream will expand as it freezes. If you’d like, once the ice cream is frozen solid, you could put a piece of parchment on top to help prevent freezer burn.

How long does strawberry ice cream last?

For the best results, eat your ice cream within three months. Any longer than that and the flavor will deteriorate and the top of the cream might get freezer burn.

Strawberry Ice Cream Tips

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Why is my strawberry ice cream icy?

Sounds like freezer burn! If your strawberry ice cream recipe has gotten icy, perhaps you stored it for a little too long or maybe it warmed up on the counter when you took it out to serve. Freezer-burned food is safe to eat, just less palatable.

Why didn’t my strawberry ice cream freeze?

If your ice cream maker has a freezer bowl, perhaps it wasn’t in the freezer long enough before you churned your ice cream. Another possibility is that the maker ran too long and the temperature of the ice cream base began to warm up again.

How can you use strawberry ice cream?

The easiest way to use a recipe for strawberry ice cream is to pop it into a cone or make it into a sundae. Decorate the pastel pink scoops with your favorite sprinkles, candies and other ice cream toppings. You could also turn it into a sandwich: Make one of our beloved contest-winning cookie recipes, fill pairs of cookies with ice cream, wrap the treats and refreeze. You could even use the ice cream to make a fun twist on strawberry shortcake—keep everything else the same but dollop scoops of ice cream atop the biscuits.