Fat Fatty: Blueberry Ice cream

On our trip back from Montana, we stopped at a sketchy gas station in the middle of rural Washington. Sketchy gas station in Washington might be a little redundant, as each one we stopped at had the same meth-y obese woman in short-shorts vibe. Anyways, at this particular gas station they happened to have a fresh fruit stand where we sampled some sweet rainier cherries and bought a couple pounds of these beautiful blueberries.

Seeing as it's hot as balls around here, I decided to make a cool treat with them. I love berry ice creams, but it's hard to find one that has that concentrated berry taste. This recipe calls for a simple vanilla custard and reduced berries so that you can really get that blueberry flavor.

Keeping with the simplistic beauty of a good blueberry ice cream, no fucking around, here's the recipe and a quick montage of the process.

Blueberry Ice cream

Ingredients:

1 lb. fresh blueberries

pinch of salt

1 1/4 cup sugar

1/3 cup heavy cream

1 1/4 cup whole milk

6 large egg yolks

3 Tbsp. clear alcohol(I used tequila because that's what I had, but vodka or white rum would work too)

1 tsp. lemon juice

1 tsp. lemon zest

1 tsp. vanilla extract

Directions:

1.Combine blueberries, salt and 1/2 cup of sugar in a 4 qt sauce pan, mashing the berries a little to release juice and allow to macerate for at least 45 minutes.

2. Combine yolks and a 1/4 cup of sugar in a large bowl and whisk until thoroughly combined and pale yellow.

3. Combine cream, milk and 1/2 cup of sugar in another 4 qt sauce pan and heat until 175 degrees, about 5 minutes. Slowly whisk cream mixture into the eggs until combined then return to the sauce pan.

4. Heat on medium low, whisking constantly until the mixture comes up to about 180 degrees and is thick and shiny. Don't take it over 180 unless you want scrambled egg ice cream.

5. Strain the mixture through a sieve into a bowl. You can set this bowl over a water bath to cool it quickly.

6. While your custard is cooling, turn up the heat on your blueberries, reduce and mash them until they've released most of their juices and the berries are broken down, about 5 minutes.

7. Strain berries and reserve the juice. Mix your lemon zest, lemon juice and alcohol in with your berries. The alcohol will stop them from becoming icy and will also cut back on ice crystals in your finished dessert.

8. When both the berry juice and the custard are cooled, mix them together along with the vanilla extract and chill in the refrigerator until they reach 40 degrees, or about three hours.

9. Churn the custard until it looks like soft serve, about 20 minutes then add your strained berries, churning for one minute more. Transfer the mixture to a container with a tight fitting lid and allow to completely freeze, 2-3 hours more.

10. Eat it.