Goddess Of Scrumptiousness

Before Summer Says “Goodbye” : Strawberry-Balsamic Cherry Swirl Lemon Curd Ice Cream

I always associate ruby-red cherries and strawberries, and bright yellow lemons with summer but who doesn’t anyways for this particular season.

With cherries I always think of those 1940’s sundresses with cherry prints and with lemons… of course it will always be lemonade, sipping it with a long swirly straw (…ok, that’s just me!) under the sun.

I know that the combination of strawberry and lemon for an ice cream flavour has been around for ages. So I figured why not make a teeny tiny twist to a classic combo and incorporate some sassiness.

The classic and traditional way of making ice cream is you make a custard with egg yolks, sugar, a mixture of full fat milk and cream, and flavouring. Then you dump the custard mixture into an ice cream machine, or in the old days, putting it in a tightly lidded can and rolling the can non-stop for a very long time with your own two hands over ice and salt.

My version is more of a deconstructed process of making ice cream.

I cooked the lemon curd first, then made my own strawberry-balsamic and cherry jam, and when these two components were cooled, I whipped the lemon curd and milk and cream mixture and folded half of the jam and swirled the rest gingerly throughout the ice cream mix.

Ingredients:

For the Lemon Curd

6 egg yolks, lightly beaten

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup cornflour/cornstarch

1 1/3 cups water

pinch of salt

zests of 2 lemons

1/3 cup lemon juice

- In a mixing bowl, whisk egg yolks and sugar together. Mix and dissolve cornstarch and pinch of salt in water then combine these two mixtures together and cook in a sauce pan over low heat.

- Continue whisking the egg custard mixture until thickened. Turn off heat and whisk in the lemon juice.

- Transfer lemon curd in a bowl and cover the surface with cling film (making sure the cling film is touching the surface of the lemon curd) and cool at room temperature. Set aside.

For the Strawberry-Balsamic Cherry Jam

4 cups fresh or frozen strawberries, hulled and sliced into quarters

1 cup Maraschino cherries, stemmed and sliced in halves

2 tablespoons Balsamic vinegar

juice of 1/2 lemon

2/3 cup sugar

- In a sauce pan, put all ingredients together and cook until mixture gets slightly thick, the consistency should be a like a runny jam.

note: As jam cools it will get more thick, so a bit of a runny jam consistency is what you want when you remove the mixture from heat to cool.

- Cool jam at room temperature. Set aside.

For the Ice Cream Base

1 1/2 cups whole milk

1 1/2 cups heavy cream

- With a whisk or electric hand mixer, beat on medium speed the milk, cream and cooled lemon curd until slightly aerated.

- Fold in half of the jam mixture into the ice cream mixture and continue to beat but on low (hand mixer) speed just enough to make a homogenized mixture.

- Swirl the remaining jam throughout the ice cream mixture as gently as you can with a kitchen spoon or rubber spatula.

- Either transfer the ice cream mixture in an ice cream maker (check settings and instructions) or (for those without an ice cream machine) put ice cream mixture in a rectangular container, freeze for 2-2 1/2 hours until slightly frozen and beat the mixture again with a hand or stand mixer. Transfer the whipped (almost soft-serve in consistency) mixture back in the freezer until well set and ready to eat.

Makes 6 cups