Blueberry Swirl Ice Cream

There used to be a blueberry cheesecake ice cream which I used to enjoy as a child and this ice cream brings back a lot of childhood memories

I have been baking for years, and feel quite comfortable with cakes and other desserts. Ice cream is less demystified, however. I have made many no churn versions before, but none come close to the silky bite of a custard ice cream.

I did a lot of googling and reading about different recipes and found many people make reference to David Lebovitz’ recipes. I used his base recipe, with some minor adaptations to create the base for this recipe. (The original recipe can be found here).

I had some blueberries lying about and decided I wanted to swirl them through the ice cream, for a fresh burst to a silky vanilla base. I was definitely not disappointed by my first attempt at ice cream making, but will tweak my skills as I go along.

Edit 2024: Refer to my last paragraph above, I will tweak my skills as I go along ;). It is a few years later and I have made a few more ice creams since this initial post, and have developed a nicer custard base to form the canvas for this blueberry swirl.

If you make this recipe, please share it with me by tagging me on Instagram @adventureswithsugar or on Facebook at Adventures with Sugar. Please also leave a comment below to let me know how you got on with the recipe.

FOR THE BLUEBERRY COMPOTE

• 150g fresh blueberries
• 50g caster sugar
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice

METHOD

1. Place the blueberries, glucose syrup, caster sugar and lemon juice on medium heat, until the sugar has dissolved, the blueberries start to soften and the colour begins to run and all the ingredients come together.
2. You want the blueberries to break down as much as possible, else they will freeze as hard clumps in the ice-cream.
3. Set aside to cool to room temperature whilst you get on with the rest of the ice cream, then refrigerate.

FOR THE ICE CREAM

• 450ml full cream milk
• 200ml whipping cream, well chilled
• 180g sugar
• 1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise
• 6 large egg yolks
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• blueberry essence (optional)

METHOD

1. Heat the milk in a saucepan. Split the vanilla bean pod in half and add the seeds as well as the vanilla bean pod into the milk and sugar. Turn off and let infuse for an hour.
2. Place the egg yolks, vanilla extract and sugar in a bowl and whisk to combine.
3. Then rewarm the milk until hot, slowly pour about a quarter of this milk into the egg yolks and mix. Then add the egg yolks to the rest of the milk.
4. Cook the milk and egg yolks on low heat until the custard thickens slightly and coats the back of a spoon. This should take about 5 minutes.
5. Whip the cream to soft peaks, then fold into the custard base. Add a few drops of blueberry essence, if using.
6. Place this custard in the fridge to set overnight.
7. Place the custard in your ice cream maker and churn as per the makers instruction.
8. Once churned, swirl the blueberry compote through and freeze.

Recipe by adventureswithsugar.com