00:00 Hello, this is Chef John from FoodWishes.com with the best blackberry ice cream!
00:09 That's right, I'm going to show you how to make some amazing blackberry ice cream without
00:13 having to churn it or needing any kind of ice cream maker.
00:16 And while this may not be as popular as blackberry sorbet, it is definitely richer and more decadent.
00:22 And when blackberries are in season, this is without a doubt one of my all-time favorite
00:26 ways to enjoy them.
00:28 So with that, let's go ahead and get started with a pound and a half of the best blackberries
00:32 we can find.
00:33 And I did buy these at the market, which I'm going to use for the ice cream base.
00:37 But at the end of the video, I'm going to show you how to finish this using the old
00:41 blackberry smash.
00:43 And for that, I'm going to use some extra sweet, extra ripe ones I picked on the property.
00:48 But first things first.
00:49 And what we'll do is transfer our berries into a saucepan.
00:52 And then we'll add some white sugar, a little pinch of salt, and then just a little bit
00:57 of fresh lemon juice, or lime if you want.
01:01 They both will work, so you pick.
01:03 I mean you are after all the fairies of what to add to your berries.
01:07 But whether you're an elf or a pixie, I do think we want that little bit of acidity to
01:11 balance the sweetness.
01:13 And that's it.
01:14 We can head to the stove, where we will place this over medium heat.
01:17 And we will give that a stir.
01:19 And we will wait for those berries to start to break down, and for those juices to start
01:22 to bubble.
01:24 And if you need to toss in a tablespoon of water to get it started, go ahead.
01:28 But there's usually a little bit of water attached to the berries from the rinsing,
01:31 so I was fine.
01:33 And then what I like to do as soon as those berries start to break down, is grab a potato
01:36 masher, and we will go around crushing those berries.
01:40 Which eventually would break down just from the heat, but this is just going to help things
01:44 go a little faster.
01:46 And by the way, a lot of recipes say to puree this in a blender first, but I've always felt
01:50 breaking up those seeds and pureeing them into the mixture causes an off flavor, or
01:54 at least a slightly more bitter flavor.
01:57 So I much, much prefer this method.
01:59 And once this is finished, I want to be able to strain out all those seeds whole.
02:03 And then what we need to do here is cook this until it reduces by about half.
02:07 And guessing is fine, but to help us decide, I like to stick a spoon in, to mark the level
02:12 when we start, and then we can use that as a guide for when it's about half.
02:16 Oh, and the heat setting is going to be up to you.
02:19 All right, if you do this on high heat, it will reduce and thicken a lot faster, but
02:24 you will have more splattering.
02:25 And theoretically, you could scorch the bottom, or we could just keep it on medium, which
02:30 will take longer, but with less splattering and no danger of burning it.
02:34 But either way, like I said, we want to reduce this by about half, which by the looks of
02:39 this spoon level, I'm just about there.
02:42 And once we decide that has cooked down enough, we'll remove it from the heat, and we'll pass
02:47 that through a fine mesh strainer, which is going to catch all those seeds and any other
02:52 fibrous bits.
02:53 All right, nobody's ever eaten blackberry ice cream and said, "This is good, but I wish
02:58 it had more fibrous bits."
03:01 So this is a key step.
03:03 And once everything's passed through that will possibly pass through, we will add in
03:07 one can of sweetened condensed milk, which is not to be confused with evaporated milk.
03:12 Okay, be careful, they're right next to each other in this store.
03:16 And we can also at this point add our vanilla extract, the pure and the real.
03:21 And what we'll do is take a whisk and mix that in.
03:24 And besides adding flavor and sweetness, this is also going to help cool down our freshly
03:28 made blackberry syrup, but not quite cool enough.
03:31 Okay, before we can use this wildly colored mixture, we need it to be fully chilled.
03:37 So what we'll do is transfer that into the fridge for at least an hour, or of course,
03:41 if you're in a hurry, you could put that over an ice bath, but either way, make sure that's
03:45 nice and cold before you move on to this next step, which is to pour two cups of heavy cream
03:50 into a chilled bowl, and then either by hand or with a mixer, we will beat this cream until
03:56 it reaches medium stiff peaks.
03:58 And it sounds like weird advice to tell you not to accidentally make butter, but that
04:03 is exactly what I'm going to tell you.
04:05 Okay, if we over whip this cream, it will break and the fat will separate, and you will
04:10 literally end up with butter.
04:12 In fact, to see that, go check out our "How to Make Butter" video.
04:15 But anyway, the point is when our whipped cream looks like this, and it retains its
04:19 shape and will hold a nice sharp mark, we will stop and grab our chilled blackberry
04:24 mixture, and we'll transfer about half of our whipped cream into the bowl, and then
04:28 we'll use a whisk to gently, but not too, too gently mix it in, because all we're doing
04:34 with this first addition of whipped cream is using it to aerate and lighten the blackberry
04:39 mixture so that when we fold in the rest with a spatula, it will hang on to enough of those
04:43 microscopic air bubbles to give our ice cream the perfect post-freeze texture, which by
04:49 the way is the key to a no-churn method, where usually those air bubbles are created while
04:53 it churns, but we are skipping that step.
04:56 So what we'll do, like I said, is use our whisk to mix that in until that cream just
05:01 about disappears, at which point we can transfer in the rest, and then we will switch to our
05:06 spatula, and we will use that to fold it in, by scraping from the bottom and the sides
05:12 up over the top, with the occasional gentle stir, and while we are going to be a little
05:18 more gentle than we were with the whisk, we are still not obsessing about knocking out
05:23 too much air, in fact I think if you're too gentle, I believe that actually dilutes the
05:27 flavor a little bit, since that bite of ice cream once frozen is not going to be as dense
05:32 on the palate, so what I'm trying to say is fold this in fairly gently, but do not stress,
05:39 since really all we're trying to end up with is a nice light, relatively fluffy, but pourable
05:43 batter.
05:45 And then once that's been accomplished, we can transfer that into whatever container we're
05:48 going to freeze it in, which as you can see from its frosty appearance, I definitely keep
05:53 in the freezer until I need it, and what we'll do is transfer that in, and cover it tightly,
05:59 and then of course transfer it into the freezer until it's completely frozen solid, which
06:04 is probably going to take at least 4 hours, but I almost always leave mine overnight,
06:09 and then once it is frozen, we can go ahead and scoop this out and serve it up, but I
06:14 highly recommend this optional step, that we call the old blackberry smash, and that's
06:21 where we take a handful or two of our sweetest, most perfect berries, and then proceed to
06:25 mix and smash them into our ice cream base, and for me this takes the blackberry ice cream
06:30 from something that's great, to something that is mind-blowing, and yes of course you
06:35 can just mix the berries into the ice cream before you freeze it, but I think using the
06:39 old blackberry smash method, you get a much better texture, since the fruit doesn't freeze
06:44 and crystallize, and it also partially melts the ice cream a little bit, and seems to make
06:49 it even more creamy, plus not to mention, it makes everything look so much more gorgeous,
06:55 and that's it, once that optional but mandatory step is done, we can serve this up, and if
07:01 we want, we can garnish with some extra berries, and what I think is the best, blackberry ice
07:06 cream is ready to enjoy, and anyone lucky enough to enjoy this, will have no idea we
07:13 didn't use a machine, since I think the texture is absolutely perfect, plus mixed into that
07:18 perfect creamy texture of the base, we have that juicy, extra sweet, fresh fruit, which
07:24 provides not only a great contrast in mouthfeel, but also in flavor as well, since those bits
07:30 are pure berry, which makes the blackberry flavor of our base, even more blackberry-y,
07:37 blackberry-ish, even more pronounced, and I really should have chilled this dish in
07:41 the freezer first, but I didn't, and it was like 100 degrees in my kitchen, so even though
07:47 I tried to move fast setting up these shots, this ice cream got pretty soft, which is why
07:53 I did a different one, to take pictures for the thumbnail, which reminds me, this style
07:58 of ice cream does melt fairly quickly, so this is not an ice cream you want to let sit
08:02 out, so we want to leave this in the freezer, until everyone has a spoon in their hand,
08:08 but anyway, that's it, when it's summer and blackberries are in season, this should definitely
08:13 be on the what to make list, but if it's not summer, you can still get some frozen blackberries
08:18 at the store, and you will still end up with something fairly fantastic, but whether you
08:23 do that, or use peak of the season fresh berries, either way, I really do hope you give this
08:29 a try soon, so please follow the links below for the ingredient amounts, a printable written
08:35 recipe and much more info as usual, and as always, enjoy!
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