Soft Serve Strawberry & Pistachio Ice Cream

Soft Serve Strawberry & Pistachio Ice Cream

I have made this several times over the last few weeks and my family just loves it. If you have an electric ice cream maker, this is very easy to make. I have a Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker with two freezer bowls. Make sure that your freezer bowls have been in the freezer overnight before you start.

When using fruit, I like my ice cream at the soft serve stage. That way the fruit isn’t a solid chunk of a frozen nugget but just has a nice cold texture to it. Any seasonal fruit will do for this recipe.

There are several things that you need to keep in mind when you are making ice cream. The number one rule is that real ice cream is NOT low fat. You need the fat because it does not freeze and it helps to keep it a creamy texture. Lots of low fat recipes can be very icy in texture because of the water content. I am not talking about using only heavy cream but a nice combination of whole milk with heavy cream. Second you need to use white granulated sugar. White granulated sugar does not freeze. I suppose you could use liquid sweeteners but typically they have very distinctive flavors like honey that might not go well with your recipe. Thirdly alcohol does not freeze and also helps to keep it a creamy less-icy texture as well. Just a little bit goes a long way. Don’t guilt about eating real ice cream just keep your portions small.

Strawberry & Pistachio Ice Cream

1 lbs. of fresh ripe strawberries, stemmed and sliced

1 lemon juiced (about 4 Tablespoons)

1 ½ cup of sugar, divided

1 ¼ cup of whole milk

2 ¾ cup of heavy cream

1 ½ teaspoons of vanilla extract

1 Tablespoon of vodka

1 ½ cup pistachios, chopped

In a medium bowl, combine the strawberries with the lemon juice and ½ cup of sugar. Stir gently and let the strawberries macerate for 2 hours at room temperature, stirring occasionally. After they have macerated, mash the berries with a potato masher until they are small chunks.

In another bowl blend the milk and the remaining sugar until the sugar has dissolved. Stir in the heavy cream, mashed strawberries and their juice, vanilla and the vodka. Pour half the mixture into one of the two freezer bowls and set up the ice cream maker. Let it mix for about 25 minutes. Pour mixture into a bowl and mix in half the pistachios. Store in a freezer safe container. Repeat using the second freezer bowl with the other half of the recipe. Pour the mixture into the same freezer safe container. Freeze for about 2 hours and serve. If left in the freezer longer, let it thaw out for about 20-25 minutes before you serve it.

8-10 servings