Two Ingredient Strawberry Ice Cream

The bright red, juicy strawberries can be used in so many ways – atop your favorite cereal, in breakfast smoothies, tossed in leafy green salads, in a myriad of desserts and baked goods and of course chocolate-dipped. But the first thing I usually do with fresh strawberries is make ice cream.

Two Ingredient Strawberry Ice Cream

As a kid, making homemade ice cream during the summer was a treat. Mom placed the noisy electric ice cream maker (an upgrade from the hand crank model which you had to fill with rock salt) outside the kitchen door, filled it with creamy strawberry ice cream base and turned it on. 

When we heard the noise of that motor cranking away we knew that heaven was waiting for us after dinner. We waited with anticipation for the cold, pink, creamy sweetness of homemade strawberry ice cream.

Local Strawberries

Visiting family in Bakersfield over the weekend we picked up fresh local strawberries. Bakersfield is at the southern end of the great central valley, the vast agricultural heartland of California. My father-in-law had been telling me about a local farmer who grew the best strawberries.

As soon as I opened the car door I was flooded with the heady smell of fresh strawberries being warmed by the sun. Their fragrance was thick and sweet in the morning air. The open window to the stand was filled with basket upon basket of rich red strawberries. The berries were smaller and nicer than at the stands around our house.

Strawberry Varieties

Wanting to know more about these berries we wandered around back and found the grower, Chai Saechao, holding pails piled high with just picked strawberries. His family has been farming strawberries in the area since 1988. We talked with Chai about his beautiful strawberries. The small red ones were Chandlers. He was also growing a few rows of the Albion variety. Chai picked a huge Albion strawberry right off the plant and handed it to me.

Warm from the sun, this huge perfect strawberry was amazingly sweet and juicy. The flavor was incredible. He said the Chandlers were even juicier! And yes, Chai’s berries were organic. Truly, these were the sweetest strawberries I’ve ever tasted, like they were dipped in sugar syrup.

Why Choose Organic Strawberries

Why go the extra mile (and cost) for organic strawberries? Because the Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit group focused on public health, lists strawberries as always on their “Dirty Dozen” list. Plus to me, they taste better.

At home, I made a batch of easy my two ingredient double strawberry ice cream for dessert. It was a sweet end to our Memorial Day dinner of grilled baby back ribs, macaroni salad and deviled eggs.

With strawberries this sweet, no additional sugar was needed. Just two ingredients made for wonderful ice cream - strawberries and sweetened condensed milk. Try this simple recipe and freeze extra berries for strawberry ice cream all summer long.

Of course there is a lot of sugar in sweetened condensed milk, so beware your sugar intake.

More Strawberry Recipes

Fresh strawberry muffins

Fresh strawberries with honey vanilla sour cream

Chocolate-dipped strawberries

Summer berry salad

Strawberries with Balsamic syrup

Strawberry banana smoothie

📖 Recipe