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 strawberries with honey vanilla sour cream
Strawberries with Balsamic syrup
Two Ingredient Strawberry Ice Cream
Equipment
- Ice Cream Maker
Ingredients
- 1 ½ pounds fresh strawberries stemmed, washed and quartered about 4 cups
- 14 ounce can sweetened condensed milk
- 6 ounces fresh strawberries stemmed, washed and diced small about 1 cup for adding at end
Optional Sweeteners
- a little monk fruit or sugar for sweetness if needed
Instructions
- Puree 4 cups of strawberries in a food processor or blender. Add sweetened condensed milk and puree together to make the ice cream base. Place a fine sieve over a large bowl and pour the ice cream base into the sieve. With a large ladle push the ice cream base through the sieve to remove the strawberry seeds and refine the base. Taste the base for sweetness and add if you want to. Sweetness will depend on the ripeness of the berries.
- Chill the base in the refrigerator until very cold. Process the ice cream base in an ice cream maker according to manufacturer directions. Towards the end of the freezing process, add 1 cup of diced strawberries or fold in by hand. Ice cream will be soft when finished. Place ice cream in the freezer for several hours to firm up.
Miriam Gaenicke says
I just made your Strawberry Muffin recipe and it IS AMAZING! VERY QUICK & EASY w/ALL ingredients on hand. 🙂
As an extra treat, I folded in a few blueberries. 🙂 Also, this seems to be a GREAT muffin base to used with other fruits (berries, peaches, bananas). Also, let's not forget the dry poppyseeds w/bananas.
Thank you for adding some extra fun to my day!
Miriam Gaenicke
Shannon says
those muffins look so tasty...i think im making those this weekend!