Black Pepper Roasted Strawberry Balsamic Strawberry Jam Ice Cream
This is not for the faint of heart. Or short of time. And one bite may be enough to satisfy, but then agin, I’m about to have another bite to check.
It’s fourth of July. I have some great friends, an awesome dog, and my hubby here. We’ve done nothing but eat, lie in the sun and repeat all day. On each cycle I prepped another layer of this ice cream. It was fun. I think I may do the 4 ingredient chocolate sorbet tomorrow!
In planning this Blog, I searched sites for weird and uncommon ice cream flavors. Salt & Straw Strawberry Honey Balsamic with Black Pepper caught my eye and when I found fresh berries here, well, the rest is history. Although the recipe probably still needs tweaking. The closest I could find is the Strawberry, Black Pepper and Balsamic ice cream from from Genius Kitchen.
The match up is classic but I wanted something with different textures and swirls of flavor. The Genius Kitchen recipe called for minimal pepper that eventually got strained out. It also called for a more consistent blend to finish. I wanted the swirls of jammy strawberry pictured in the Salt & Straw ice cream.
So in a nutshell, this recipe is for a strongly peppered ice cream to which a few roasted strawberries are added in the last minute of churning. Then I reduced the strawberry juices, some sugar and some balsamic vinegar into a thick jam that I swirled into the ice cream while it was curing.
This is an ice cream to crave and to make a little differently every time. Enjoy and Happy fourth!
Black Pepper Roasted Strawberry Ice Cream with Balsamic Strawberry Jam Swirl
2 cups heavy cream
1 cup milk
3/4 cup sugar
pinch salt
4 egg yolks
3 tablespoons ground black pepper (more or less to taste)
2 cups sliced very ripe strawberries
1/2 cup simple syrup
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar2 tablespoons sugar
For the ice cream:
Whisk the cream, milk, sugar, salt, egg yolks, and pepper in a heavy saucepan. Cook gently over medium heat, stirring often, to form a custard that coats the back of a spoon. Put in a container, cover with saran and chill overnight.
For the roasted strawberries:
mix berries and simple syrup in put in a pyrex casserole dish. Roast for 30 minutes in a 350 degree oven. Gently put the berries in a separate bowl to chill. Reserve the strawberry juice for the jam.
For the Balsamic Strawberry Jam:
Mix the vinegar, sugar, and reserved strawberry juice in a saucepan. Heat over medium to reach a slow boil, stirring to avoid scalding. Lower heat a little and let it reduce to a thick sauce or jam. Be careful to not let it scald while reducing. Stir every now and then. Should take 30-40 minutes.
To Finish:
Churn the pepper ice cream base in an ice cream maker. When it is almost ready to cure, add the roasted strawberries and continue churning till they are mixed in but still chunky. Transfer the ice cream into a container to harden in the freezer. You may need to stir it once or twice in the 2 hours while it starts to harden. Once it has gotten pretty firm but still soft enough to stir, swirl the jam into the ice cream by the tablespoonful until you have the ratio you want. I used 8 tablespoons and have sauce left over to serve on top.