Summer

Roasted Blueberry and Crème Fraîche Ice Cream

July  6, 2017
5
4 Ratings
Photo by Posie Harwood
  • Makes 1 1/2 quarts
Author Notes

Roasting fruit imparts a deeper flavor to your berries—if you're loathe to turn on your oven in the heat of summer, fresh berries will work just as well. Mascarpone and Greek yogurt both work beautifully in place of the crème fraîche. —Posie (Harwood) Brien

What You'll Need
Ingredients
  • For the roasted blueberries
  • 2 pints fresh blueberries
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 2 sprigs fresh thyme, optional
  • For the ice cream
  • 2 cups whole milk (or 2% milk)
  • 1 cup heavy cream
  • 14 ounces sweetened condensed milk
  • juice and zest of 1 lemon
  • pinch of salt
  • 1/2 cup creme fraiche
Directions
  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spread the berries on a parchment-lined baking sheet and sprinkle with the sugar. Add the thyme, if using.
  2. Bake the berries of 20-30 minutes, or until jammy and bubbling with juice. Set aside to cool down.
  3. In a large bowl, whisk together the milk, cream, sweetened condensed milk, lemon juice, lemon zest, and salt.
  4. Add the milk mixture to your ice cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturer's instructions. When it's almost fully frozen but still has a couple minutes to go, add the crème fraîche and the roasted blueberries. I like to add them at the end so they are still streaky, but if you prefer a more uniform ice cream, you can add them earlier.
  5. Transfer to a freezer-safe dish (I use a parchment-lined metal loaf pan) and freeze until firm.

See what other Food52ers are saying.

  • Can I have a bite?
    Can I have a bite?
  • Yvonne Spencer
    Yvonne Spencer
  • Asa Martin
    Asa Martin
  • judy
    judy

4 Reviews

Asa M. August 9, 2017
Made this tonight; glad I read the comments first, as the volume of ingredients as written in the recipe wouldn't have fit in my ice cream maker (I have the 1 1/2 Quart Cuisinart model). So, I used 1 cup heavy cream, 1 cup whole milk, 1 can sweetened condensed milk, 2 CUPS blueberries, 1/8 cup sugar, zest of juice of 1/2 lemon, 1/2 cup creme fraiche. (I also added 1/2 tsp vanilla extract.) This fit nicely in the ice cream maker and it churned up fine - it was a little soft, but reasonable. The color and flavor was excellent.
 
Can I. August 5, 2017
Unfortunately, I couldn't get this to freeze. It was doing ok until I added the blueberries. It seems like the proportion on that addition might need tweaking. Two pints is a lot! It wouldn't all fit in my ice cream maker and I ended up straining about half the blueberries and mixing them into the not quite semi-frozen base after I transferred it to containers. It's in the freezer now and I'm hoping it sets up without forming crystals. I was planning to make ice cream sandwiches using the Cooks Illustrated's blondies recipe as the cookie.
 
judy July 9, 2017
Well, I just made this basic recipe yesterday. Not the roasted blueberries--need to try that part. but the Berry Ice cream: 20 oz cream 1 can sweetened condensed milk, 2 tsp vanilla extract, 3 oz fresh home made raspberry puree and 1 pint sugared raspberries. Mixed the raspberry puree and vanilla into the condensed milk, and then refrigerated it for a bout an hour to bring down the temp. Refrigerated the bowl and beater for the cream. About 1/2 hour (time not too important-I was doing a few things around the kitchen/house). Then whipped the cream about 1/2 way until soft peaks. folded in the condensed milk/berry mixture. Then whipped the cream for
another couple of minutes until a little firmer. Would not reach stiff peaks-probably because of the condensed mikl. But it did increase in volume a bit. I stopped when it reached almost to the top of my stand-mixer bowl which is a 5 quart bowl. Folded in the sugared berries (I could have left those out) Spooned into a 1-1/2 qt freezer container. covered it closely with plastic wrap to keep out air. Then snapped on the lid and into the freezer. Of course, there was a little too much for the container, so I had a taste. Absolutely DiViNE. Reminded me of fools that I had as a treat as a kid. Went away for several hours, made dinner. And a very nice microwave blackberry cake to go with the Ice cream. This was just about the BEST ice cream I have EVER had--including fancy ice cream parlor stuff. No eggs, no churning, no ice cream freezer, no stirring to keep out ice crystals--there were none. Just the best smoothest frozen treat. So this recipe is good, but for those of us who don't have--and don't want an ice cream freezer--it really isn't necessary. Now I'll have t try the roasted blueberries before they are gone this summer.....
 
Yvonne S. July 21, 2017
Thanks for the comments Judy. I couldn't get this to set up in ice cream freezer but will try your method!