One Last Bite of Summer

I can’t believe summer is quickly coming to an end! I’m not ready for it to be over. Living in California, I have delicious strawberries readily available year round, but for most of the year they are not the same deep red, juicy little nuggets of nectar they are during the summertime. To capitalize on the sweetness of summer before it is too late, I spent a lovely Sunday at my favorite farmers market and of course bought not one sweet basket of red jewels, but a big three-pack of them; I just could not help myself. I had strawberries on pancakes, I had strawberries with cream, and I had strawberries in my salad. With a ton of delicious berries left I thought what better way to say au revoir to summer than with strawberry ice cream!

I recently got R an ice cream maker for his birthday. Being fanatic connoisseurs of everyone’s favorite frozen dessert I thought it only fitting that we be fully equipped to whip up our favorite treat in the comfort of our own kitchen. Once the machine was out of the box we jumped at the opportunity to make ice cream. Our first attempt was to make a coconut ice cream. We prudently followed each step of the recipe, but the end result of our efforts was an icy mess. Never ones to give up, we soon tried again and this time with strawberry. Step by step, we precisely cut and stirred and mixed each ingredient. Alas, our frozen dessert again was less that perfect. Our first strawberry ice cream was too icy and the strawberry pieces too big. Weary and defeated we took a break from our ice cream making endeavors. We researched the process of ice cream making, comparing recipe after recipe. We questioned why something seemingly so simple could go so awry.

This time we did it right. The step that we missed before was letting the mixture cool overnight in the fridge before placing it into the ice cream machine. From the ice cream maker we let our cold confection rest for a few hours in the freezer, and voila! It was ready.

The ice cream was creamy, firm, and sweet. It was perfection. One last bite of sweetness and the summer is over. Now I’m ready to celebrate the beginning of September and the coming of fall.

Perfect Strawberry:

1 1/2 lbs. fresh ripe strawberries (washed, dried, stemmed, and quartered)

1 cup sugar

1 cup whipping cream

1 cup whole milk

2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

Toss the strawberries with 1/4 cup sugar and let them macerate for 1 hour.

Then, put the strawberries and their juices into a food processor and puree.

In a medium bowl add the cream, milk, remaining sugar, and strawberry puree and blend.

Let the mix chill overnight in the refrigerator.

Pour the mix into an ice cream maker, add the lemon juice and process according to your machines instructions.

Makes 8-10 servings.

Enjoy!