I have an ice cream maker. It’s a little Krups one, and when I received it for a birthday present, I thought that I would be using it all the time. I had visions of myself as a modern day milkmaid. Churning rich vats of cream into sweet, fatty, wonderful ice cream, I would make up new flavors of ice cream that one couldn’t readily get at the grocery– vanilla with malted milk balls, strawberry with chunks of over-ripe peaches, and rich Mexican chocolate. But alas, there are two main problems with my dairy dream: I am slightly lactose intolerant (but that never stopped me before), and I am not one of those people who loves ice cream.

Ice cream is a good go-to staple from the dessert pantry for me, but rarely do I crave it. So the ice cream maker has sat in the cupboard, collecting dust and occupying precious space, only to be broken out and used a half-dozen times in the three years that I have owned it. That is until this week, and the simple but sinful, Fresh Blackberry Ice Cream. Perusing through my cookbooks, I was flipping through the pages of The Greenmarket Cookbook. This book, with recipes and tips from the famous urban farmers’ market, The Union Square Greenmarket, is filled with not only interesting recipes, but is also divided into sections by season, containing exhaustive lists chronicling which fruits and vegetables are in season when. Feeling a wee bit panicky about the imminent close of the summer season, and the necessity of bidding a fond farewell to all of the amazing stone fruit and berries, I was thumbing through the summer section when I found the recipe for ice cream. It sounded simple, pure, and summery, so off I went to the market to gather my lactose-heavy ingredients.

So now that summer is coming to a close, I am only just now breaking out the Krups Ice Cream Maker. Smooth and rich, perfumed with the sweet-tart flavor of the fresh blackberries, this was an ice cream to be savored. Simply steeped with the fruit, the beautiful violet color of the blackberries melding into the heated cream as it cooled before refrigeration, making ice cream requires patience, but with patience comes rewards. All totaled the ice cream was about seven hours in the making, but after the wait I got a visually stunning, and entirely delicious treat to gobble up after a meal. But ice cream is an interesting food, it is almost taunting you, knowing that you can’t eat it it too quickly (brain freeze), or eat it it to slowly (melted mess).

Armed with my dairy digestive tablets, and a reinvigorated desire to produce crazy, or just plain scrumptious ice creams, I apologize to my little Krups Ice Cream Maker, for many a year buried in the back of my kitchen cabinet. Who knows what other creamy treats are lurking in the back of my mind? Only time will tell.

This is not one of those chunky, full-of-fruit ice creams, but rather the blackberries are simply muddled, left to infuse the cream, and then strained out. The result is an outrageously colored, and sublimely tasting ice cream.

Fresh Blackberry Ice Cream
from The Greenmarket Cookbook

2 1/2 cups heavy cream
1 1/4 cups milk
1 1/4 cups sugar (or for very sweet berries reduce the sugar to 1 cups)
1 vanilla pod, split and scraped
4 large egg yolks
2 pints fresh blackberries, washed and picked through

In a heavy saucepan, over medium heat, combine the cream, milk, sugar, and vanilla pod. Stir often until sugar melts and the mixture is steaming hot.

In a medium-sized bowl, whisk the egg yolks. Gradually stir in some of the cream mixture to temper, then scrape the eggs back into the cream mixture. Continue cooking over medium heat, whisking constantly until mixture reaches 140 degrees, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat, stir in the berries, muddle to release juices, and let stand until cool. Strain the custard through a fine mesh sieve to remove seeds. Cover and refrigerate until cold, 2 hours at minimum.

Process the cooled custard according to ice cream maker’s instruction. Enjoy!