Happy Independence Day! If now isn't a time for strawberries and ice cream, I don't know what is. (Or watermelon sorbet, come to think of it.) But this is a story about leftovers. I had some leftover heavy cream from a previous ice cream making endeavor, and a lot of strawberries leftover from my strawberry haul at the start of strawberry season (installments one and two: strawberry pecan bread and strawberry pie).

If you know me, though, you'd know that I like putting a twist on "basic" flavors. And knowing that balsamic vinegar and strawberries often go together, I sought out a balsamic strawberry ice cream recipe. I found quite a few and settled on this one, offered by Closet Cooking, but as usual, I altered it a touch.

Roasted Balsamic Strawberry Ice Cream

2 cups of strawberries (cleaned and hulled)
2 tbsps of balsamic vinegar
2 tbsps of sugar
1 cup of heavy cream*
1 cup of full milk*
1/2 cup of sugar (white or brown)
3 egg yolks
Salt
*Alternatively, you could use 2 cups of half-and-half

Instructions
To roast the strawberries, preheat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit. Toss the strawberries in the balsamic vinegar and sugar and let sit for 20 minutes. Pour the mixture on a baking pan covered in foil folded up on the sides to capture the juices. Roast the strawberries until they start to caramelize, about 15 to 20 minutes. Remove from oven, allow to cool, and place the strawberries and the juices into a container and chill in the fridge.

Heat the cream, milk and sugar in a sauce pan until it almost boils, about 5 minutes. Reduce the heat to low. Add one tablespoon of the cream mixture to the eggs to temper them. Add the egg mixture to the sauce pan. Cook at low heat until it thickens and coats the back of a spoon. You may want to strain the mixture at this point to remove any bits that may have formed while cooking. Add a pinch of salt to help the ice cream freeze, and stir. Chill the mixture in the fridge.

Mix the cream and strawberry mixtures and freeze according to the instructions for your ice cream machine. After removing the ice cream from the ice cream maker, you may need to freeze it for a couple of extra hours so it hardens to a firmer consistency (rather than soft serve).


This was really good. As you may have guessed, I don't typically pick up strawberry ice cream at the store, but this was much better than expected (and better than most strawberry ice creams I've had). According to Kevin, the author of Closet Cooking, roasting the strawberries just intensifies the flavor. I could definitely taste a bit of the balsamic vinegar, but only in that it gave the strawberries a bit of dimension. It wasn't sour, and if I hadn't been looking for it, I probably would've never known it was there. If you're looking for a good homemade strawberry ice cream recipe, this is one I highly recommend. Plus, it's easy!