Philadelphia style, no eggs
Roasted strawberry
Strawberries are mostly water, and water turns to ice. Roasting them first drives some of it off and concentrates the rest, which is the difference between pink ice and proper strawberry ice cream.
- Makes about 1 litre
- 20 min hands-on
- Roast 25 min
- Chill 4 hrs
- Ice cream maker needed
Ingredients
- 500 g1 lb strawberries, hulled and halved
- 150 g¾ cup caster sugar, used in two parts
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 400 ml1⅔ cups double cream (heavy cream)
- 200 mlgenerous ¾ cup whole milk
- A good pinch of fine salt
Method
No custard to cook here, so the whole thing hangs on the roasting. Do not rush it.
- Heat the oven to 200°C / 400°F / gas 6. Spread the strawberries in a roasting tin, toss them with 50 g of the sugar, and roast for 20–25 minutes, until the juices are syrupy and darkening at the edges.
- Tip everything into a bowl, juices included, and leave to cool. Mash to a rough purée and stir in the lemon juice. A little texture is better than a smooth blitz.
- In a large jug, stir the remaining 100 g sugar and the salt into the milk until completely dissolved. Give it a good two minutes.
- Stir in the cream, then the strawberry purée. Chill for at least 4 hours.
- Churn for 20–30 minutes, until thick and holding a ribbon.
- Freeze in a shallow tub with parchment pressed onto the surface for at least 4 hours before scooping.
Worth knowing
- Roasting is the whole trick. Raw strawberries are around 90% water, and every drop of it becomes ice in the freezer.
- Real strawberry ice cream is a muted rose colour, not bright pink. That is what fruit rather than flavouring looks like.
- Out-of-season berries roast well even when they taste of nothing raw, so this works in midwinter with frozen fruit.
- Dissolve the sugar properly at step 3. Undissolved sugar makes the texture gritty in a base that is never cooked.
Make it yours
Five ways to change it
Strawberries and cream
Fold 100 g of crushed shortbread through as you pack it into the tub.
Black pepper
Add ¼ tsp of coarsely ground black pepper to the berries before roasting. It makes the fruit taste more of itself.
Balsamic
Stir 1 tsp of good balsamic vinegar into the purée at step 2.
Strawberry and rhubarb
Swap 150 g of the strawberries for rhubarb and roast the two together.
Strawberry ripple
Hold back 4 tbsp of the purée and ripple it through as you pack the tub.
If it goes wrong
Rescue remedies
Icy and hard rather than creamy
Either the fruit was not roasted long enough or the base was not properly cold before churning. Both leave too much water in the mix.
I taste sugar more than strawberry
The sugar has to stay, because it is doing the work of keeping the texture soft. A little more lemon juice will lift the fruit above it.
Can I use frozen strawberries?
Yes. Roast them from frozen for about 30 minutes, then pour off any thin liquid before mashing.
Can I make it without a machine?
Yes, using the freeze-and-beat method in the no-machine guide. Expect a firmer set and a slightly coarser texture.