Blackberry Mango Ice Cream

“Happiness is…eating your ice cream faster than it melts!”
…And trying to take pictures of it before that too! So it’s super hot summer days, and clearly the best remedy for that is ice cream! I finally gave homemade ice cream a go, and all I can say is…I don’t know why I waited so long! I want to make ice cream all the time now!
When people hear blackberry-mango ice cream they might think sorbet. But no. This is every bit the rich and creamy ice cream you’re craving. The fruit does add a super refreshing kick though, especially the little bite size chunks of mango that have frozen over and give you that glorious burst of fruity sweetness when you bite into them. Enjoy!
Blackberry Mango Ice Cream
1 box fresh blackberries
1/2 a lemon, juiced
1/4 cup sugar
1 cup reduced fat milk (I used 2%)
1 cup +1 tbsp sugar
5 large egg yolks
2 cups heavy cream
1 mango, chopped into bite sized cubes
Combine first three ingredients into medium sauce pan on low heat for about 25 minutes. Meanwhile heat milk and 1 cup sugar over low heat, warming it only – do not bring to a boil.
In your stand mixer, fitted with the whisk attachment, mix the egg yolks and 1 tbsp. sugar until yolks lighten in color. Next you’ll need to temper the eggs. Do this by adding a couple tablespoons of the hot milk mixture to the stand mixer while it is whisking on low. Then slowly add all of the milk mixture to the eggs and continue to whisk until all mixed in well. Now pour this mixture back into the saucepan and stir constantly until it thickens. This may take just a few minutes.
Pour the heavy cream into a large bowl. Using a fine mesh strainer, strain your blackberry syrup over the bowl, making sure to extract as much juice as possible ( discard the rest – you don’t want those seeds!). This will give your ice cream that nice creamy purplish-pink color as well as all your blackberry flavor. Pour your custard mixture into this mixture and combine well. Now you need to get this to a cold temperature. You can either keep it in the fridge for a while, or speed it up a bit by placing the bowl in an ice bath, letting it cool outside the fridge, then placing this ice bath in the fridge to speed it along even more. This shouldn’t take more than 30 mins-1 hour if you do it this way (hey, we want our ice cream NOW! 🙂 )
After you get the mixture cold (and do make sure it is cold), you can follow your manufacturer’s instructions for churning. In my case (Kitchenaid ice cream maker attachment and bowl), make sure the ice cream bowl that comes with it has been kept in the freezer for 15 hours beforehand. Remove from freezer, attach ice cream churning attachment and turn it on while you add your ice cream mixture to the bowl. Churning took me about 20-30 minutes. At about 12 minutes I added my mango cubes. After you’re all done, make sure to remove from the ice cream mixing bowl ( do not place in freezer in this bowl!) and place in a freezer-safe container that you can cover with a lid. I froze it overnight and it was perfect the next day. You can definitely eat it sooner, it just won’t be as thick and creamy, and will definitely drip more!
Hope you have a sweet day!