This Strawberry Ice Cream has been in our family for 4 generations – yes, it’s that good!! My grandma started making it in the 1950’s and we haven’t stopped since. The recipes from that era are so simple and yet somehow so elegant. No special ingredients…just pure, simple food. One bite of this ice cream takes me back to sitting on the rusty rocker on my grandma’s back porch, running barefoot through the grass with my brother, and waiting for dinner to be over so I could finally eat some ice cream.
As an adult, this ice cream reminds me of all of the years my husband and I have taken our kids strawberry picking and come home to make this ice cream. I’ve talked about it before, but I love how recipes are able to connect generations like that. I know the years are numbered when all of my kids will be home in the summer to go strawberry picking with me, and they’re not the most enthusiastic strawberry pickers anymore (to be honest, it’s become kind of a circus to take them!). But I hope they will always look back with fond memories and create new ones with their own families one day. Thanks for the recipe, Grandma!❤️❤️
I will talk a little more about my grandma later in the post, but want to get started with the recipe.
Ice Cream Base
This is a no-cook recipe, just start with a few cups up strawberries – washed and sliced in half.
….purée in the blender with a cup of milk…..
…..and then mix with some more milk, cream, sugar, and lemon. Seems to good to be true, but that’s all it is!
Does this ice cream freeze well?
I like this ice cream best soft-serve style, straight out of the ice cream maker. Just after churning, it tastes like the most amazing strawberry milkshake you’ve ever had. That’s how I’ve always had it, and can’t imagine it any other way. But for the sake of everyone else who likes to make their ice cream beforehand and freeze it, I tried churning it and then putting it in the freezer until frozen solid. And I’m going to be honest, this ice cream doesn’t freeze as well as some others do….
Old Fashioned Strawberry Ice Cream has no modern stabilizers in it, like xanthum gum – and doesn’t even contain eggs. In addition, the fat content in this ice cream is relatively low. All of these factors contribute to the ice cream freezing more solid than what you might be used to. Up to a few hours in the freezer is great, after that it will get a little hard and be difficult to scoop. So let’s all be just like grandma, and serve it straight out of the ice cream machine!
Grandma “Doll”
I want to take just a minute to tell you about my Grandma “Doll”. I’m not sure why we all called her “Doll,” because her name was Margaret, but that’s what we called her. She was a tiny woman who gave birth to four daughters and my very large dad. My grandpa was a fighter pilot in World Ward 2 and while he was at war, she took care of her young family by herself. When her kids were teenagers, she found herself as a single mom again (this time as a permanent situation), and I know that could not have been easy on her. She was an amazing cook, who kindled a love of food in so many people in our family. I’m positive that I will share many more of her recipes with you.
Beyond my carefree childhood memories on her back porch eating ice cream and visiting her for Sunday dinners in the winter, I also lived with her for a few years while in college. I played volleyball for the University of Utah and she lived a few miles from campus. She took pity on me and let me stay with her during the season, when the workouts were overwhelming and the last thing I needed was a long commute home to the other side of the valley. As a bonus, she liked to keep the heat in her house set to 80 degrees in the winter. And if anyone has ever visited Utah in the wintertime, you’ll understand why this was one of the things I loved most about living with her. I miss her! ❤️
I hope you all enjoy her Strawberry Ice Cream recipe as much as we do – and that it brings you years of joy and happy memories!
Old Fashioned Strawberry Ice Cream
2 cups strawberries, pureed in blender
2 cups whole milk, divided
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1/2 of a lemon, squeezed (I wish I could give you an exact amount, but that’s the way grandma always made it and I’m not going to mess with that!)
Pinch of kosher salt
Directions:
Place strawberries and 1 cup of milk in the blender. Blend until only small pieces of strawberry remain. Add the remainder of the milk, the sugar, whipping cream, lemon, pinch of salt, and puree just until combined (5 pulses max).
At this point you can refrigerate the mixture until ready to use, or transfer it straight to the ice cream mixer for freezing. This ice cream is best straight out of the ice cream machine, soft-serve style (see explanation above). This ice cream can also be stored in the freezer for up to 2 hours before serving. Enjoy!
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