Triple Berry Ice Cream

Nothing in life is free.
I promise you.

 I had a woman call me a couple weeks ago, telling me that I won a "free" Bridal Pampering Package from Mary Kay. Of course the offer sounded great but I was really skeptical about it. But I decided to go for it anyways. I agreed to it, and invited two of my girlfriends over to experience the pampering with me. We had an awesome spread with 4 different types of wines, and lots of nibbles to enjoy while the woman gave us a hand treatment, and did our make up.  It was a lot of fun.

But...remember what I said about nothing in life ever being free?  Yeah...by the time she left this so-called "free bridal pampering" event, we had each spent over $80 in make up and lotions. And not only that, the woman was really pushy and trying to tell me that if I just spend $100 on a start-up kit, I too can host my very own Mary Kay parties and start to sell the products. Oh and don't forget that she has a brand new car outside, that I could surely have too! Yeah lady, I'm sure. 

 Needless to say I'm not THAT mad at myself. I really did need some of the stuff I bought, and not to mention it was a really fun night with good friends and good food. My fiance was a very good sport also. With a house-full of women talking about beauty. I could imagine that would be the equivalent of a house-full of fist pumping dudes talking about beer and babes. (I'm sure my time to endure that type of evening will come eventually.)

One of my friends brought over this huge bowl of a mixed berry salad. It had strawberries, blackberries, raspberries and blueberries.  By the end of the night however it was just a triple berry salad, because being that raspberries are my favorite, I picked them all out.  She left all the fruit here and I had no idea how to use it all before it went bad.  

Oh I know...lets take this healthy bowl of fruit and make it into a not-so-healthy-but-incredibly-creamy-and-delicious-ice cream.  Yep.

 Triple Berry Ice Cream
4 cups of berries (I used blackberries, strawberries and blueberries)
Juice of 1 lemon
1-1/4 cup sugar
1-1/2 cups half and half
1-1/2 cups heavy cream
5 egg yolks, room temperature


Add the berries, lemon juice and 1/4 cup sugar to a medium saucepan. Cook for 20-25 minutes on low, until the mixture has thickened and the berries have broken down.  Strain the berry mixture through a fine mesh sieve and set aside.


In a separate saucepan, heat the half and half with the remaining 1 cup of sugar.  Do not let this mixture boil. You are just heating it up.


In a medium sized bowl beat the egg yolks until they are pale yellow in color and a little thick.  While whisking, slowly pour in the warm half and half mixture.  Once you've added all of the half and half to the eggs, pour the mixture back into the saucepan, and continue cooking over low heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture is thick.  You can test this by dipping a spoon into the mixture, and running your finger across it.  If your finger mark remains, it's ready.


In a large bowl add the cream, and berry puree together.  Strain the egg mixture with a fine mesh sieve and add it to the rest of the cream and fruit.  Place the bowl with the ice cream base into a larger bowl.  Put ice cold water into the larger bowl, but be careful not to get any water into the ice cream base.  This just helps the ice cream base cool down faster.  Place in the fridge and allow to chill until it is very cold.  Mix ice cream according to your machine's instructions.  Place in an air tight container and store in the freezer.

You're welcome.