Blueberry Maple Ice Cream

A luscious and creamy ice cream that is great on its own or served with a simple piece of cake

I bought an ice cream maker earlier this week and I have now discovered what will replace last month’s obsession with making jam. I bought the ice cream maker out of the goodness of my heart because my husband is going gluten free for a little while and also giving up beer, so I thought I would give him a treat. I continue to enjoy a cold beer now and then on our newly minted patio and I felt bad for him that he couldn’t have a treat.

The ice cream maker that I got is a Cuisinart that I bought at Costco. I have searched for it online but I can’t find it. It was relatively inexpensive, only $40 which is pretty good for the brand. All the others I saw were around $80.  We think our new toy was totally worth it.

My Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker purchased from Costco

What I have discovered with ice cream making is that it is quite easy to do (with the right equipment) but you need to plan ahead a little bit. The vessel from the ice cream machine needs to go in the freezer the day before to make sure it is fully frozen and if you are making a custard based ice cream like this recipe then it needs to chill in the fridge for several hours before putting the ingredients in the machine. I also heated the blueberries so that needed to be chilled as well.

I served the ice cream last night over a store-bought vanilla pound cake and it definitely elevated the plain cake to be worthy of company.  Tim had a few bites but he wasn’t feeling well so he didn’t eat much. As he gets better I’m sure he will eat a bowlful.

Apart from wanting a lime green ice cream machine, I wanted to make my own so that I could have complete control over the ingredients. I find that a lot of ice creams are way too sweet. When I was researching ice cream recipes I found the sugar levels to be unnecessarily high.  A blueberry ice cream recipe on Epicurious.com that I looked at called for 3/4 cup of sugar a smaller volume of cream and no yolks. While I didn’t shave off much of the sugar, I did cut it back by about 3 tbsp but since I ended up with more ice cream, I guess mine is much less sweet.

Expect to see a lot more recipes for ice cream on this site in the coming months. I think I may have created a monster.

Blueberry Maple Ice Cream

Christina Austin

A luscious ice cream that isn't too sweet, allowing the flavour of the blueberries to really stand out. This recipe makes approximately 1 quart.

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Prep Time 30 minutes mins

Cook Time 30 minutes mins

Total Time 1 hour hr

Ingredients

  

• 2 cups whipping cream heavy cream
• 1 cup whole milk
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 4 egg yolks
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries
• 1/3 cup maple syrup
• juice of half a lemon 1-2 tsp

Instructions

 

• In a small saucepan put in the blueberries, maple syrup and lemon juice. Heat over medium and bring the berries to a gentle boil. Stir often so they don't scorch. The berries will burst and you will have a lovely sauce. Pour this into a bowl and put it in the fridge to cool for approximately 2 hours.
• In a medium pot gently heat the cream and milk. Stir often and don't let it boil.
• In a heatproof bowl (I used a large glass measuring bowl) whisk the egg yolks with the sugar and vanilla.
• When the cream and milk start to steam, very gradually pour the hot cream into the egg yolks, whisking constantly. I add just a couple tablespoons first, whisk that and then add the rest of the cream, very slowly so that I don't get scrambled eggs.
• Once you have gotten all the cream and eggs together in the bowl, wipe down the outside of the pot (if you spill a little like I do) and pour the cream and egg mixture back into the pot. Heat gently until it coats the back of a wooden spoon. About 10 minutes. It is a thin custard so the best way to test is run your finger through the cream on the back of the spoon. If it stays separated then it is done. If it runs back together then you need to cook it a little longer. It will also sound different when it is done as you stir it. It will be more sloppy sounding and less splashy - very technical I know.
• When it is done, pour it into a heatproof bowl {note after publishing: pour the custard through a fine mesh sieve to catch any bits of cooked egg} and put plastic wrap right onto the surface of the custard to avoid it getting a skin. Put the bowl in the fridge and let it cool for several hours or over night. To speed up the cooling process you could do what I did - use two stainless steel bowls from a nesting set and put the custard in the smaller one and some ice water in the larger one. Just make sure that no water can get into the custard bowl.
• When the custard and berry mixture is completely cool, stir them together and pour the blueberry custard mixture into the frozen bowl part of the ice cream machine. Let it run until you have ice cream. Mine makes it a bit soft serve and then it firms up in the freezer after I transfer it to a container with a lid.