In general I don’t care for commercially made strawberry ice cream- but the homemade stuff- that’s another thing altogether.  I bought a pound of organic strawberries and found a recipe for no-cook strawberry ice cream in Gourmet August 2009 -which I just slightly adjusted. Here is the original at Epicurious for Perfect No-Cook Strawberry Ice Cream if you want it.Mmmmm. Good…

We don’t eat conventional strawberries anymore since they are one of the crops most heavily sprayed with pesticides and they are way too delicate to scrub or peel. I think the organic ones taste better too- just my preference. So go organic if you can when you go for this frozen treat.

Frozen Strawberries and Cream

• 16 ounce container of organic strawberries, washed, topped and cut up
• 2/3 cup Vanilla Sugar*
• large pinch of salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups organic  heavy cream

Mash the strawberries and sugar with a potato masher in a medium sized bowl.  Add the lemon juice, salt and vanilla extract. Let sit at room temperature for about 10 minutes to macerate. Place 1/2 of the strawberry mixture into a blender with the cream. Blend until smooth. You’ll need to decide if you want larger bits of strawberry in your ice cream which freeze harder and can make a textural difference. Or if you want it all creamy process all of the strawberries in two batches using half of the cream in each batch.

 Cover and chill for about 4 hours or overnight. Freeze in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s directions. I use an inexpensive Rival churn type machine that you add ice and rock salt to. I have a Cuisinart too that utilizes a prefrozen tub but I never have freezer space to donate to the cylinders and also I think they take longer and don’t freeze as well since the cylinder starts warming as soon as you remove it from the freezer where with the old fashioned type you are making it colder as you go.

Either way once it is at a  softly frozen stage remove it to a carton and freeze to firm if you haven’t devoured it all before you can get it there.  I buy quart and pint sized ice cream cartons with lids at my local restaurant supply store.  This recipe makes a little more than a quart.

* For Vanilla sugar- we always have a container of this on the counter for coffee etc.  No need to use a pristine bean for this. Just quickly rinse and wipe your beans clean after using  them for infusing cream or whatever in another recipe and place them in an airtight jar. Cover with granulated sugar and let sit. Even a couple of hours makes the sugar infused with vanilla goodness. Just add whatever beans you have as you use them and top off with sugar to replace any you take out. You will have a perpetual supply of the good stuff. I use it whenever I want that little extra burst of vanilla flavour.

Enjoy!