Niece Christine and the kids stopped by last evening to drop off a few plants she had started – three tomatoes (Black Beauty‘s and Cherokee Purple) and 4 peppers (Aleppo and Buena Mulata) to add to our beds. If the gardening gods are willing, we’re going to have some fun foods this season!
Immediate fun was they had been strawberry picking earlier and brought us two pints of perfectly ripe Hood Strawberries!
If you’ve heard of one variety of Oregon strawberry, it’s probably the beloved Hood! Hood strawberries have evolved as the gold standard in sweet, juicy flavor among Oregon strawberry lovers. Available for an extremely short window of 2 to 3 weeks right at the beginning of berry season, these medium sized berries are known for their high sugar content and deep red color throughout. When ripe, they are much softer in texture than other varieties, and need to be eaten fresh or used in jams or baking within hours of being picked.
Finley and Elise both said they were going home to make Strawberry Ice Cream after visiting Auntie Katie and their brand-new cousin Graham.
We decided they were very smart children and decided to make some, ourselves! Out came our 25 year old Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker… The bowl lives in the freezer for moments like this!
We have a fairly standard base for our non-custard-style ice cream – 2 cups heavy cream, 1 cup whole milk, 1/2 cup sugar, 1 tablespoon of vanilla, and 1 ounce vodka or other alcohol. We also have a really good recipe using eggs and egg yolks, but I’m usually too impatient to let it properly chill before putting it in the machine.
It’s a pretty versatile recipe – you can add all sorts of things to it. I decided it would be the base for strawberry…
And I made a rookie mistake.
I failed to realize just how much water Hood Strawberries contain… I macerated the berries and drained off a lot of the liquid, but the ice cream was a bit icier than I would have preferred. It tasted fantastic – the texture just didn’t elicit premium…
What I should have done was actually cook down the strawberries and make a sort of jam – really concentrating those juices. My mind was saying fresh strawberries…
I know better for next time…
