Eggless strawberry icecream

Ice cream ?!??! What ?!?!?!? Really ?!?!??! Yeah, even I didn't believe what I could do with few fresh strawberries & li 'l heavy cream until I actually did it :) Okay, here's a little background for you. Yesterday, we were at Baskin & Robbins to order a cake for my daughter 's b 'day. We went there 'only' to order cake (did you believe that? seriously?!?!! ha.. ha.... ha.. you WISH). So, as I was enjoying their "jamoca" ice cream, my mind was seriously thinking - "how do they make such delicious & creamy ice creams .. if I get the recipe, can I make it at home .. How easy/tough would it be? .. How will the final product be?". So, that kick-started the spark of making ice cream at home.

I remembered a box of strawberries sitting in my fridge. So, I started to browse for strawberry ice cream recipes. I got helluva recipes from the internet, but didn't know which one to choose .. not sure which one would work ... So, I decided to go by the images.. I chose a few recipes that had this 'pretty pretty pinkalicious' pictures of strawberry ice cream. Recipes seemed very simple & easy, but they required ice cream maker. Ice cream maker?!?!?! hmmmm.. okay, why not buy one? I know that my dear hubby would be very encouraging when it comes to food :) Just as I expected, he took me to one of the departmental stores nearby, but unfortunately couldn't find an ice cream maker. Then, I remembered reading that if there's no ice cream maker, then there's a tedious process of stirring ice cream every now & then (as it freezes) for 2-3 hours (courtesy: How to make ice cream without a machine). Long story short, came back home with an electric hand-held mixer.

Ingredients

Fresh ripened strawberries - 6-7 nos

Heavy whipping cream - 1 cup

2% milk - 1 cup (You can also use whole milk)

Salt - Half a pinch

Sugar - 1/2 cup

Method

Cut the fresh strawberries into small pieces and puree them using a blender. Leave small chunks of strawberry, if you like strawberry pieces in your ice cream. (I pureed it completely without any chunks). Keep it aside.

Take heavy cream in a big bowl & whisk it until it doubles in quantity. Now, add milk, pureed strawberries, sugar & salt and mix them in with a spatula. Leave the mixture in the freezer for 45 mins - 1 hr. Doesn't this sound easy peasy? Well, the hard part comes after this. Now, you have to check the freezer for every 30 mins and use a spatula / electric mixer to mix the ice cream (break the ice particles if any), and leave it back in the freezer. Repeat this process for 2-3 hrs (and that means 4-6 times). After this is done, leave ice cream in the freezer overnight (or 4-5 hrs). 

If you can religiously follow this process, you are sure to get berry berry delicious, yummilicious, pinkalicious ice cream. As usual, my daughter loved it (she 'll love anything in the name of strawberry OR ice cream :). This one had both - so no complaints). Mr. Super Critic (my hubby .. who else did you think?) liked the taste of the ice cream, but he felt it needed to be li 'l more creamier (may be it required some more stirring / more freezing). Okay, agreed !!!

Whatever said & done, I am happy about my ice cream experience and its outcome. I am also very glad to share my experience & recipe with you.

Tips

• If you are planning to take pics of this yummy treat, make sure to have all your set up ready before taking ice cream out of the freezer. I learnt it the hard way - Ice cream started to melt by the time I began taking pictures :(

• Few of the recipes called for vanilla essence / lemon juice. But, also had reviews that those flavors overpowered berry's flavor. So, I skipped them in my recipe.