Homemade Eggless Strawberry Ice cream (No Cooking)

My love for sweets not withstanding, i didn't think i could get addicted to ice cream. Not until i made one at home with fresh strawberries in the peak of their season. And i discovered whole new limits to the quantity of ice cream that can be consumed in one sitting. My limits at least. At recent trips to the farmer's market i could see street side vendors selling packs of strawberries at rates much less than in super markets. And when i found that the cost of a pack was coming down with every visit over the last two months, i found myself buying increasing quantities of these red beauties. I ate some as dessert, just the fruits, but wasn't satisfied. And froze some because the rate at which fresh strawberries were coming into the house was more than the rate at which they were being consumed.  (By the way they freeze extremely well, i take a peek at the ones in the freezer once in a while and they look temptingly fresh). So as the year was coming to a close, i decided i was going to welcome the new year with a big bowl of ice cream, an irresistible one.

While i was all excited about how amazing this ice cream tasted, family and friends weren't as enthusiastic when i mentioned it, as much as they were about my previous bakes of cakes and cookies. It took me a while to understand the reason. Its because we all knew only one type of home made ice cream till now. The one where you buy a packet of ice cream powder, cook it with milk till it reaches a custard-y consistency, freeze it and eat it. It tastes less like ice cream and more like milky Indian sweets. And while i ate it with much enthusiasm as a kid, for lack of alternatives, i wasn't tempted to make some at home. Until i found out you could make ice cream that doesn't taste or smell overtly of milk. Now i want to try out even more varieties of ice cream. I heard of a simple recipe for caramel ice cream on TV yesterday, that might well become my next project.

Strawberries in the box to being washed, hulled and chopped

Yield: 1.5 litres

Serves: 12-15

Preparation time: Under 30 minutes

Setting time: 4 hours

Inspired from here

Ingredients 

3 cups fresh strawberries

3 cups fresh cream (i used Amul low fat)

1 cup milk

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla essence

Adding the milk, sugar, vanilla, cream and blending in the strawberries

Method

Wash, hull and chop the strawberries. In a large bowl stir in the sugar and milk until the sugar dissolves. I powdered the sugar first so i didn't have to whisk it longer. Add the vanilla essence. Now add the cream and whisk it again until smooth and creamy for a couple of minutes. Add the strawberries and mix into the cream using a hand blender in the same mixing bowl. Or transfer the contents to your blender or food processor and pulse for about 10 seconds. You will get a creamy mixture in dreamy pink. (Do a taste test here and add tablespoonfuls of sugar and blend until you get the desired sweetness, in case your strawberries are not sufficiently sweet). Transfer to a freezer safe bowl and keep it in the freezer for 3-4 hours. Before it freezes completely, take it out and blend again to get a creamier texture to the ice cream. You can repeat this process a couple more times if you want a softer creamier texture to your ice cream without any ice crystals at all. I stopped after one round and dug in. It was so delicious i now wonder if the remaining two packets of strawberries i froze are also destined to become ice cream.

Oh, and if you have an ice cream maker you can simply mix all the ingredients together, put it in the ice cream maker and follow the maker's instructions. You 've got it made.

Various servings of the delicious strawberry ice cream

My cousin came over on new year's, and we unwrapped new bubble stem glasses (in the above pic) so we could savour this ice cream in style. I ate more than half the ice-cream all by myself, i made a large batch and i have just one tiny portion sitting in the freezer and calling to me as i talk to you. I better go take care of it.

This last pic goes to Susan's Black and White Wednesday event, the very first one for this year. 

Also sending this ice cream to Ramya's Desserts event. 

Linking this to Anu's Berries Event: Strawberries being guest hosted by Vardhini of Zesty Palette.