Fresh seasonal strawberries make for a delicious Roasted Strawberry Ice Cream. This French-style ice cream is packed with flavor, and the perfect summer treat.

When summer hits, so do seasonal berries. They’re fresh, packed with juicy flavors, and nutrient-rich. In the summertime, my family and I love going to a local farm to pick berries. It’s a fun experience, and the reward is simply delicious. We love snacking on fresh fruit, but I also love using the berries to make homemade desserts. And on that list of tasty treats is my roasted strawberry ice cream!

In this recipe, strawberries are roasted to bring out their flavor and thicken their juices. They are then added to a French-style ice cream base and churned into a delicious treat. Seasonal strawberries work best in this recipe as they yield the most flavor. You can top this ice cream with a drizzle of chocolate sauce and your favorite toppings, but it’s perfectly delicious on its own.

Before you begin

Take out the following baking equipment.

1 large baking sheet pan
Parchment paper
Medium saucepan
Whisk
2 small bowls
2 medium bowls
1 large bowl
1 wooden spoon
Fine mesh sieve
1 fork
Ice cream maker

Read the recipe through from start to finish.

Understanding ingredients

Fresh strawberries on their own are delicious, especially at the peak of their season. So why roast strawberries for this recipe? Because the flavor of the berries cook down and concentrate. This enhances the flavors of the strawberries and creates a delicious ice cream. When roasting your berries, it should take about 30-40 minutes. The juices will release from the strawberries and combine with the sugar to form a thick and sticky syrup.

Eggs add to the smoothness, richness, flavor, color, and fat content of ice cream. Specifically, the lecithin in egg yolks is an emulsifier that helps keep the butterfat from separating during the freezing process. However, not all ice cream bases call for egg yolks. But as custard-based ice cream, this recipe calls for egg yolks, which are cooked with the cream and the sugar to produce a rich and creamy product.

Milk and cream are two important ingredients in making ice cream. The butterfat found in these two ingredients contributes to the texture, firmness, and richness of ice cream. Having too high of a butterfat percentage can result in a grainy texture. Using a combination of heavy cream and milk gives the ideal balance of butterfat to create rich, smooth ice cream.

What is French-style ice cream?

There are two main types of ice cream, a custard-base ice cream that is made with egg yolks and a less rich ice cream made without eggs. Both are delicious but differ in their texture, body, and richness. This roasted strawberry ice cream is considered custard-based ice cream, and more specifically, French-style.

French-style ice cream is made with milk, cream, sugar, egg yolks, and flavorings. Because it contains eggs, it must be cooked before freezing. French-style ice cream is prepared the same way as crème anglaise using the same ingredients. Essentially, crème anglaise can be used as a base for ice cream.

Tips and takeaways

This particular recipe uses a 50/50 ratio of heavy cream to whole milk. If you’d like to reduce the amount of heavy cream, you can certainly do so by replacing with equal amounts of whole milk. However, this will affect the texture, firmness, and richness of the ice cream. Alternatively, you can also substitute half and half to lighten the recipe.
After your ice cream base has cooked to the correct temperature, it’s essential to cool down the mixture. Doing this will prevent the custard from continuing to cook and thicken, and it will cool the base down safely so that you can finishing cooling it down in the refrigerator. Use an ice water bath. Add just enough water, but not so much that it will overflow into your ice cream base.
Do not skip the step of pouring your ice cream base through a fine-mesh sieve. It is preferred to do this so that you remove any traces of cooked egg in your mixture.

More strawberry recipes

Make sure to tag me @thesweetoccasion on Instagram and leave me a review below if you make this Roasted Strawberry Ice Cream. I’d love to see your creations and read your feedback. And if you would like to make this recipe later, be sure to pin this recipe using the button on any of these images. Let’s make every occasion a sweet occasion!