Strawberry Gelato Ice cream, fresh and frosty

It's finally the season to start experimenting with the ice cream maker!  So far we've done a fresh mint chip with a blend of peppermint, spearmint and swiss ricola mint.  That was really good, almost reminiscent of a mojito without the lime of course.  Then the good old fashioned chocolate.  Both of those were french ice creams (custard based) and went over very well with the fam.  Yesterday we took advantage of the sun and made fresh strawberry gelato while a bunch of girls slip n slided and danced in a sprinkler in the back yard.  Wow, talk about a fluffy, refreshing fruit ice cream.  Yum!  This one is just milk, cream, sugar and berries with a dash of vanilla.  Even so, it did not freeze hard as a rock and I was easily able to scoop light, frosty scoops out the next day.  (Granted, that was a refrigerator freezer and not the chest freezer.)  Now, I do love a french ice cream but this is so quick and easy, I just had to share.  This is most similar to Breyers Strawberry Ice cream for a store bought comparison.  The recipe makes only about a pint for my small capacity ice cream freezer.  I'm sure you can double unless you like the portion control of a smaller batch.  ☺

Strawberry Gelato Ice Cream

makes a generous pint

1½ cups cleaned strawberries (get organic if possible - strawberries are a heavily sprayed crop)

½ cup whole milk

½ cup heavy cream

½ cup evaporated cane sugar

dash of vanilla extract

Blend strawberries with half the sugar.  Add the milk, cream and remaining sugar.  Mix well to dissolve all the sugar.  I used my stick blender and its 2+ cup container to make the whole batch.  Flavor with vanilla.  Chill if necessary.  All my ingredients were quite cold so I didn't have to chill.  Pour into ice cream maker and freeze according to manufacturer's directions.  Mine only took about 15-20 minutes but this small capacity freezer takes less time.  I'd say 25-30 minutes or more for a standard leave in the freezer canister style ice cream maker, especially with a double batch.  (If you like larger pieces of berry in your ice cream, I would suggest chopping up a couple berries to your desired size and adding them to the mix when you put it in the ice cream freezer.)

The neighbor girls loved their ice cream cones, eaten still slightly soft serve style.  This stuff was so deliciously fluffy, I can't decide whether I like it fresh or cured better!

Adapted from DeLonghi