Roasted Strawberry Buttermilk Ice Cream

AKA, the best strawberry ice cream of all time.

Nothing like a little pressure, eh?

I’ve written a love letter to Jeni’s ice cream already, so I’ll skip the sonnet this time (but seriously.. best ever) and just gush about this particular recipe. It caught my eye when I was paging through my Jeni’s cookbook, planning a recipe for Father’s Day this year. My own father loves strawberry ice cream, and I had bought O a freaking grill so I figure he would be solid eating whatever. I go through phases where I make ice cream constantly, and I was in one at the time… so ice cream it was, and this surely fit the bill.

In general, I wouldn’t say strawberry ice cream really provokes tremendous excitement deep down inside for me–I mean.. does it for you? Really?–though I did have a week of nonstop cravings for strawberry ice cream, frosting, and cream cheese. But roast the berries, evaporating so much of the water that ices up a strawberry ice cream, add buttermilk, and blend it all into a Jeni’s recipe? The expectations were high, people.

And then I ate it. Holy.

Jeni’s recipes always start out with the smoothest, creamiest, richest base to begin with, thanks to the cornstarch slurry and the bit of cream cheese, and the roasted strawberry syrup blended unbelievably with the buttermilk. It wasn’t quite tart, but balanced and smooth, rich, perfect. The perfect way to showcase ripe strawberries without overwhelming.

And so why am I sharing now, now that strawberry season is basically over and we’ve all moved on to pinning caramel apple cupcakes on Pinterest? Because it’s not quite fall, and you can still totally make this as a celebration of the season’s last berries before we are forced into oranges for six months. You’ll thank me–and then curse me in a few weeks when berries are once again something like $6 a pint. Ain’t no time like the present, people.

And if you could send me a batch, that’d be stellar. Reminiscing about my strawberry-creamy-stuff cravings week has reignited a desperate need for a pint of this roasted strawberry buttermilk ice cream but I am way, way too tired to make any and our freezer is way, way too packed to fit the ice cream bowl in anyway. What’s a girl to do?! Oh yes.. bribe her readers.

Make this.

The only thing I changed was to double the amount of strawberry purée in the ice cream base–I think this really emphasizes the berry flavor in a necessary way.

Hey – you’ve made it this far, so now we’re basically best friends! If you make this recipe, I’d love for you to give it a quick review & star rating ★ below. Make sure you follow me on Instagram, Pinterest, TikTok, and Facebook, too!

Roasted Strawberry Buttermilk Ice Cream

Prep:4 hours 30 minutes

Cook:11 minutes

Total:4 hours 41 minutes

The best strawberry ice cream I've ever tasted--balanced perfectly with tart buttermilk and so smooth, thanks to the roasting and puréeing.

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6 people

Ingredients

• ▢ 1 pint fresh strawberries , hulled and sliced
• ▢ 1 cup ⁄2 cup sugar
• ▢ 3 tablespoons lemon juice
• ▢ 1 1 cup ⁄2 cups whole milk
• ▢ 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• ▢ 2 ounces cream cheese , softened
• ▢ 1 tsp ⁄8 teaspoon fine sea salt
• ▢ 1 1 cup ⁄4 cups heavy cream
• ▢ 2 cup ⁄3 cup sugar
• ▢ 2 tablespoons light corn syrup
• ▢ 1 cup ⁄4 cup buttermilk

Instructions 

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Combine strawberries with sugar in an 8" square glass or ceramic baking dish, stirring gently to mix well. Roast for 8 minutes, or until just soft. Let cool slightly. Puree in a food processor with lemon juice. Measure 1 cup of the pureed berries; refrigerate the rest of the puree for another use.
• Mix about 2 tablespoons of the milk with the cornstarch in a small bowl to make a smooth slurry. Whisk the cream cheese and salt in a medium bowl until smooth. Fill a large bowl with ice and water.
• Combine the remaining milk, cream, sugar and corn syrup in a 4-quart saucepan, bring to a rolling boil over medium-high heat, and boil for 4 minutes. Remove from the heat and gradually whisk in the cornstarch slurry. Bring the mixture back to a boil over medium-high heat and cook, stirring with a heat-proof spatula, until slightly thickened, about 1 minute. Remove from heat.
• Gradually whisk the hot milk mixture into the cream cheese until smooth. Add the buttermilk and reserved strawberry puree and blend well. Pour the mixture into a 1-gallon Ziploc freezer bag and submerge the sealed bag in the ice bath. Let stand, adding more ice as necessary, until cold, about 30 minutes.
• Pour the ice cream mixture into the frozen canister of electric ice cream freezer and run according to directions of ice cream maker. Pack the finished ice cream into a storage container, press a sheet of parchment directly against the surface, and seal with an airtight lid.

Notes

Freeze in the coldest part of your freezer until firm, at least 4 hours. Makes about 1 quart.

Nutrition Information

Calories: 825kcal, Carbohydrates: 123g, Protein: 7g, Fat: 37g, Saturated Fat: 22g, Cholesterol: 132mg, Sodium: 532mg, Potassium: 362mg, Fiber: 2g, Sugar: 116g, Vitamin A: 1500IU, Vitamin C: 50mg, Calcium: 211mg, Iron: 1mg, Net Carbs: 121g

Number of total servings shown is approximate. Actual number of servings will depend on your preferred portion sizes.

 

Nutritional values shown are general guidelines and reflect information for 1 serving using the ingredients listed, not including any optional ingredients. Actual macros may vary slightly depending on specific brands and types of ingredients used.

 

To determine the weight of one serving, prepare the recipe as instructed. Weigh the finished recipe, then divide the weight of the finished recipe (not including the weight of the container the food is in) by the desired number of servings. Result will be the weight of one serving.

© Author: Cheryl Malik