There is nothing like ice cream. It’s a summertime favorite. Ok. It’s a year round favorite. Saying that, there is nothing like homemade ice cream with the freshest ingredients.
In Northern Colorado we are lucky to have three raw milk dairy’s (cow). The recipe used (sort of, it was guidance really) calls for milk and heavy cream. Because raw milk has that luscious cream on top, the heavy cream was omitted. And since following a recipe exactly is nearly impossible (thanks Grandma!), rhubarb was added, because strawberries without rhubarb, well that’s just wrong.
Yesterday called for a visit to Garden Sweet, located at 719 W. Willox Street in Fort Collins. The plan was to grab some strawberries for some ice cream. But who can resist fresh rhubarb this time of year? (And of course, lettuce greens because you can never have enough). Then, a quick stop at Taft Hill Dairy for the weekly raw milk share and it was game on.
Now for the good stuff. The recipe.
2 large stalks rhubarb, cut to 1/2 inch cubes
3 cups fresh strawberries trimmed
4 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 1/2 cups organic sugar
1 1/2 cups whole milk
2 3/4 cups heavy cream (if using raw milk with cream on top, use same measurements and omit the heavy cream)
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- Place the rhubarb in a pot with 1/2 cup of the sugar and 2 tablespoons of water. Bring to a boil, and then lower to a simmer, stirring frequently. Cook until the rhubarb easily falls apart. Set aside to cool.
- In a small bowl, combine the strawberries, lemon juice and 1/2 cup of sugar. Stir gently and allow the strawberries to macerate in the juices for about 2 hours. Then mash or puree the berries in their juice.
- In a medium mixing bowl place the cream, milk and the remainder of the sugar in and mix on low with a hand mixer until the sugar is dissolved. Then stir in the vanilla, rhubarb, and strawberry mix.
- Turn on your ice cream maker, pour the mixture into the freezer owl and mix for 20-25 minutes. The ice cream will be smooth and creamy. Eat now or pack into airtight freezer containers for at least two hours. (Re-used gelato containers are perfect!)
- If you don’t have an ice cream machine, skip that step and pack the ice cream into an airtight container after blending all the ingredients together. Freeze for at least two hours.