Homemade Blueberry Vanilla Bean Ice Cream
My big splurge for the Summer was a Cuisinart Instant Frozen Yogurt, Ice Cream & Sorbet Maker. I know it isn't very pricy, but for a non-essential, it's more than I would usually spend. Anyhow, it just arrived yesterday evening (heralded with much excitement — I'm sure the delivery guy thought we were nuts), and we decided that first thing this morning we'd take her out for her maiden ice cream-making voyage.
A little note before the "soupy" pictures put you off: Since this was our first attempt with our new machine it seems that we did not let it chill long enough (that and it's 101ºF with humidity out right now) and we ended up with more of an ice cream shake than solid ice cream (it still tasted good though).
Sooo... Since we still had a bag of freshly picked blueberries that we gathered on our trip last weekend, we decided to make Blueberry Vanilla Bean Ice Cream (I followed the recipe video here).
With just a bit of pouring, whisking, and vanilla bean scraping we had our mix going. Ten minutes later it was almost frozen and was ready to have the fresh blueberries added. Only a few minutes later we had Blueberry Ice Cream!
(I'm meeelllltiiinnnng!)
After the initial taste I decided that the blueberry flavor I had been hoping for just wasn't there so I decided to make a blueberry sauce to swirl into the finished ice cream. I had never done this before (so there is probably a better way to do it) but in a small saucepan over med-high heat I boiled about 1/2 cup fresh blueberries, 1/8 cup of sugar, 1 Tablespoon of water, and 1/4 teaspoon of lemon zest. I let them bubble for around three minutes, mashing the blueberries carefully with the back of a spoon. I then strained the mixture through a very fine sieve and placed the now smooth sauce into an ice bath to chill quickly. Once cold (about 10 minutes) I drizzled a little bit into my ice cream and stirred it around once or twice (I think I might have over mixed mine) and then placed the whole thing back in the freezer until I was ready to serve it.
(I was inspired by Sweet Paul to place cupcake liners underneath my bowls. Cute, right?!)
To make the blueberry syrup for the topping I reheated the remaining smooth sauce and added in cornstarch to thicken (dissolve 1 teaspoon of cornstarch in 1 teaspoon of water and stir into sauce - bring to boil while stirring until thickened). Serve with fresh blueberries, blueberry syrup or just gobble up a scoopful on a yummy gluten free ice cream cone (our newest gf find).
Bonus: You can find these cute wooden spoons at craft stores. I just wrote on the ends of mine with a Uni-ball Pen and Prismacolor Colored Pencils. Easy-peasy! xo Ez
Props: Porcelain Berry Basket in white from Anthropologie (purchased in store) | cupcake liners from Bake it Pretty | White Bowls from Target (purchased in store) | Wooden Spoons from Michael's (purchased in store) | Uniball Pen from Office Depot (purchased in store) | Prismacolor Colored Pencils - found in many craft stores or online.
Thursday, June 30, 2011 
Reader Comments (14)
this looks SO good right now. Yet again, you've inspired me Ez!
You always have such lovely posts. I appreciate the time that went into this and think your dessert looks wonderful. Now you've got me looking at an ice cream machine. :)
yum, yum!! i haven't made ice cream in years - hmm, maybe it's time to do it again!
I've been thinking about buying an ice cream maker for a while now and these images are really helping me make my decision. I would love to make my very own ice cream and experiment with flavors.
Nice touch with the wooden spoons. You can prolly do this sort of as a business near schools or parks or anywhere kids love to hang.
Pinning your lovely photos to Pinterest.
xo Jana
Love the writing on the pop sicks, very cute idea.
you've inspired me to pull out our ice cream maker - looks yummy
OH SO YUMMY!!
I have that ice cream maker and I love it! Do you mind if I share a few tips? I find I have the best luck when I freeze the canister for at least 24 hours and have the ice cream mix really cold before starting. You'll never end up with ice cream much firmer than soft serve straight out of the machine so I scrape it into a freezer container and throw it in the freezer for 3 or 4 hours before serving. Good luck! Prepare to become addicted to homemade ice cream. It's the best! :-)
Perfectly made... So delicious.
I love anything blueberry and that ice cream is calling out my name! Delicious! I love the spoons, too, so cute!
Love this idea! Now all I need is better handwriting...
Your handwriting is amazing.