It's officially ice cream season

It's hot out, you guys. Even worse than the heat, though, is the humidity, which can make 80 degrees feel like 160 (and a 10 mile bike ride feel like 40 miles). So it's a good thing there's ice cream to lower those internal temperatures, eh? In honor of strawberry season, I opted for plain old, cold, creamy strawberry ice cream. It doesn't get much better than that, does it?

Strawberry Ice Cream
an original recipe by yours truly

Ingredients:
2 cups whole milk
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup granulated sugar
4 egg yolks
Pinch salt
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 Tbsp. vodka (optional)
2 tsp lemon juice
2 cups strawberries, hulled and halved

Method:
In a bowl, combine 1/4 cup sugar, strawberries, and lemon juice. Macerate with a fork and set aside.
Combine whole milk, 1/2 cup cream and 1/2 cup sugar in saucepan over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally. Whisk the egg yolks with 1/4 cup sugar and pinch of salt in a separate bowl. Once the milk mixture is steaming, temper it into the eggs by pouring a small amount at a time into the egg yoks, whisking constantly, then pour the custard back into the saucepan and heat until thickened (it should coat the back of a spoon).
Once the custard has thickened, pour through a sieve into a large bowl (this catches any bits of egg that might've cooked). Stir in remaining cream and vanilla extract. Add in strawberry mixture (I pulsed my strawberries in the food processor first because I didn't want big pieces in my ice cream) and chill in refrigerator until ready to churn.
Make ice cream according to maker's directions. In the last few minutes of churning, add the vodka if using (the alcohol keeps the ice cream from getting too hard/unscoopable in the freezer). Transfer to a freezer-safe container and freeze until firm.


If you don't have an ice cream maker, you can add the vodka when you add the strawberries and then stick the whole mixture in the freezer. Every 30 minutes or so, remove it from the freezer and whisk/beat the mixture vigorously to break up ice crystals. Repeat this process until you've reached soft serve consistency. This method makes for a less creamy (but equally delicious) ice cream!

Then when you're subjected to an atrocious amount of summer heat, scoop some ice cream

and enjoy!