This easy homemade ice cream gets a natural sweetness from fresh blackberries, and some melted white chocolate lends extra creaminess and flavor. An easy, delicious summer dessert!
I love that it's finally springtime. I've been craving sunshine FOREVER and it's finally here! Which is great because I am so ready for three months of ice cream and amazing produce and barbecues and summer seasonal beers.
When I saw an entire display of blackberries at the store the other day, I did a full-on happy dance. Right there. In public. Where I make all my best decisions. I bought them JUST BECAUSE I COULD, and then quickly realized I needed a game plan to use them all that wasn't just me binge-eating them for a week straight (how boring).
Somehow, I settled on blackberry ice cream. Which is weird, because (as you might remember) I am super boring picky about ice cream. So whyyyy I thought it would be a good idea to make fancy ice cream (GASP) when I was the only one who would be home to eat it is beyond me. Fortunately, the blackberries worked some kind of ice cream miracle on me - because I kind of loved it.
Even though there's no cream in this ice cream (totally healthy now, right?) this blackberry white chocolate-y concoction is straight up DECADENT. It's not too fruity, and the white chocolate lends this rich, barely-there earthy quality - the kind of thing that makes you go, "wait - there's WHITE CHOCOLATE in this!" before doing a happy dance of your very own. White chocolate blackberry ice cream for the win!
White Chocolate Blackberry Ice Cream
- Prep Time: 30 mins
- Inactive Time: 8 hours
- Cook Time: 30 mins
- Total Time: 9 hours
- Yield: 1 and ½ quarts 1x
- Category: Ice Cream
- Cuisine: American
- Diet: Vegetarian
Description
Simple, creamy homemade ice cream with a pop of flavor from white chocolate and fresh blackberries.
Ingredients
- 12 oz. (about 2 heaping cups) fresh blackberries
- 1 and ⅓ cup sugar, divided
- 1.5 cups half-and-half
- 2 cups milk (I used skim)
- 8 egg yolks
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
- 2 oz. white chocolate, chopped or in the form of chips
Instructions
- In a small saucepan, combine blackberries and ⅓ cup of the sugar over medium heat. Cook, stirring every few minutes, until you have a nice thick syrup - about 20 minutes.
- Strain blackberry syrup into a small bowl through a mesh colander and set aside. Discard any leftover blackberry bits or pulp.
- In a large saucepan, combine half-and-half and milk over medium heat. Whisk occasionally and bring to a simmer.
- While milk mixture is heating up, combine remaining sugar (1 cup), vanilla extract, and egg yolks. Whisk by hand (or, if you're lazy like me, use an electric hand mixer!) until eggs have lightened in color.
- When milk mixture has reached a simmer, it's time to temper the eggs! Add a few tablespoons of hot liquid at a time to the egg mixture, whisking constantly, until you've incorporated about half of the hot milk mixture into the eggs. At this point, you can pour the the egg mixture back into the saucepan, whisking to incorporate. Return saucepan to the stove over low heat.
- Add blackberry mixture to milk/egg mixture in the saucepan and whisk to combine. Stir frequently until the custard has thickened and coats the back of a spoon, about 3 minutes (see this post for some step-by-step pictures!)
- Place white chocolate in a large bowl. When ice cream has thickened, remove it from the heat and pour it over the white chocolate. Stir the mixture until chocolate has melted into the ice cream base.
- Let the custard cool on the counter for 15-20 minutes, then place it in the fridge uncovered for 30 minutes to an hour.
- After an hour, cover the mixture with an airtight lid or some plastic wrap and let it chill in the fridge for at least eight hours or overnight.
- You're ready to churn the ice cream (YAY!) Pour the ice cream base into your ice cream maker and churn according to manufacturer instructions. Eat it right away soft-serve style or pop it in an airtight container and freeze it for an hour or two before digging in.
Nutrition
- Serving Size:
- Calories: 2916
- Sugar: 426.6 g
- Sodium: 778.5 mg
- Fat: 97.6 g
- Carbohydrates: 461 g
- Protein: 61.8 g
- Cholesterol: 1538.5 mg
Keywords: summer, dessert, ice cream
L
Well, 1-1/3 cups of juice is TOO much. I cooked it about 15 minutes and I couldn’t get it to thicken.
Team Life As A Strawberry
We haven't run into this problem before, but we would love to help you troubleshoot! Is the juice you mention the combination of fresh blackberries and 1/3 cup of sugar from step 1?
Leslie
Can this recipe be doubled? I have a old ice cream churn and it holds more than the newer ones.
★★★★★
Team Life As A Strawberry
Absolutely! As long as it fits in your churn you're good to go!
Leslie
I have made this and it is delicious. I want to make this using bought juice. How much juice do you think I need?
Jessie @ Life As A Strawberry
I'm so happy you like it, Leslie! I bet you could use up to a cup of store-bought blackberry juice and be fine, but I haven't tried it so unfortunately can't say for sure. That's where I'd start, though - if you give it a try, let us know how it turns out!
Andie
Hi Jessie, I tried your recipe and the taste is amazing! I have one question, how did you get your ice cream to come out so pink? Mine came out a soft lavender color.
Jessie
Hi Andie, I'm so glad you liked the ice cream! I find the color tends to depend on the berries I use - riper, juicier berries tend to give me a richer color. Hope that helps!
Linda
I love this recipe. I used frozen blackberries that I picked last summer. It is so cold outside today that I put it in a bowl and placed it outside and stirred it every 30 minutes. No ice cream machine needed!
Jessie
I'm so glad you like the recipe, Linda! Thanks for letting me know how it turned out (and I love your ice cream method!)
Andrea
Hello. Im on my third try making this. The first few times my Custard broke and looked watery. This time I left out the syrup and I'm trying to add it to the churn. Is the ice cream supposed to be soft? It seems like it's not setting up.
Jessie
Hi Andrea, home-churned ice cream is supposed to reach the consistency of soft-serve in the ice cream maker - once the ice cream has reached a soft-serve consistency, scoop it into a container and pop it in the freezer for an hour or two and it will finish setting up. Hope that helps!
TheoDORA's Kitchen Diaries
You got me craving ice cream. This looks delicious! Amazing photos too.
Jessie
Thank you!
Allie
Just wanted to say I LOVE the pictures in this post - every single one of them. I feel inspired! Where did you get that little square white dish that the blackberries are sitting in?
Jessie
Thanks, Allie! I think that the white dish was a Crate & Barrel purchase a few years ago. I actually saw one like it at TJ Maxx the other day, too!
Hannah
Blackberries are finally ripening! This ice cream is going to be a must make for me.
Jessica @ Stuck on Sweet
Jessie! I am loving this ice cream and your pictures are beautiful! I happen to adore ice cream as well and love the warmer months to enjoy all the different flavors! Loving the creativity of your blackberry ice cream! Also - it was so nice to meet you at BlogHer - loving your blog! 🙂
Jessie
Thanks, Jessica! I'm so glad we got to meet at BlogHer!
Librarian Lavender
This ice cream looks so delicious! I love blackberries!