A delicious frozen treat made with freshly picked blackberries…
I am still doing my posts from USA. Hehe… We were supposed to be leaving day before yesterday, however after a little bit of contemplation, we decided to extend our stay for a couple of weeks. The girls may have their school schedules a little messed, but I am sincerely hoping that they will be fine once we go back, InShaAllah… We have been doing some or the other activities and enjoying most of our days. Here, kids are already going back to school, so that means we may have some slower days, but I don’t have too much time to think about that. I am just going to enjoy as much as I can of this beautiful place… 🙂 If you are already following me on Instagram, you would already be knowing it through my stories… 😀
During one of the recent weekends, we went berry picking. Strawberries are not in season, however the farm we went had blackberries and raspberries. It was a really interesting experience, touching the berries and picking them up with our hands into the tub. The blackberries were on shrubs that were a little over our heights, while raspberries were on smaller shrubs. Combine with it the bees and butterflies we got to see, the beautiful sky despite the soaring sun, it was a lovely experience. We ate a few fruits directly from the farm and got small tubs home, knowing that the kids wouldn’t really be interested in eating them at home. That is when my sister asked me whether I could think of recipes to utilize them.
As usual, even though cakes and/or muffins came to my mind first – I had already baked cherry muffins plus a few cakes to distribute, I wanted to make something else. Since it is summers here, I really wanted to make ice cream and the color and the tart flavor of blackberries seemed perfect for it. Thankfully, my sister has a very stocked kitchen, so we didn’t have to get any extra ingredients. Hehe… I decided to do a mix base of chilled evaporated milk and whipped cream sweetened with condensed milk to keep the ice cream slightly guilt free. I made blackberry compote with almost all the berries we picked. I kept it chunky so that there would be bites of berries as we dig in, like a little surprise. Is it just me, that berries taste like candy when frozen? Hehe… Once the compote was cooled and the base mix was beaten, I folded in the compote to try and make swirls. I can’t say I was completely successful but still the ice cream did look like it had some swirls around.
We enjoyed them in batches, sometimes after lunch, some days she would top it off on avil milk made for breakfast – now you know where I am gaining all the weight from here. 😉 If you do get some blackberries on hand, do try making ice cream with them. You wouldn’t regret… Since I am on berries, I decided to do a 3 back-to-back recipes on them. Why not! This ice cream and the recipe coming up tomorrow was done last week, so they are really fresh and the last recipe is picked up from my drafts. So stay tuned and hope you will enjoy them… 🙂 Off to this recipe…
Blackberry Ice Cream
Ingredients
- 2 cups fresh blackberries washed and drained
- 1/4 cup sugar
- Juice of one lime
- 1 can evaporated milk approx 400 ml, chilled till use
- 1/2 cup whipping cream
- 1/2 cup condensed milk
Instructions
- Combine the blackberries, sugar and lime juice in a saucepan. Cook on low flame, mashing the berries till the mixture turns syrupy, approximately 30 minutes. Allow to cool.
- In a large bowl, empty the chilled evaporated milk. Whisk till it thickens.
- Add the whipping cream and condensed milk and beat till the mixture is incorporated and thick.
- Fold in the blackberry compote. You may mix in completely or fold to make swirls - upto you.
- Pour into a storing pan and freeze for an hour.
- Take out and using a whisk, beat the mixture to combine. Refrigerate. You may repeat this process one more time after an hour.
- Refrigerate overnight or till set.
- To serve, keep out for five minutes. Scoop with an ice cream scoop and enjoy.