Strawberry Ice Cream

I've been seeing signs all over town for Blue Ribbon ice cream. I'm sure it is good ice cream, but for someone who can't have dairy, I just don't get the point. Especially since I make my own ice cream, which I'm sure is better then anything you can buy. It's so easy to do and so cost affective. With spring finally here, I get to make ice cream using fruit, my favorite ingredient.

 

I love that strawberries are in season because that means I get to make (and eat) strawberry ice cream. Strawberries are my favorite fruit. I have found memorize of picking strawberries in our back yard during the summer, of course many of them didn't make it back to the house. So combing two of my favorite things -ice cream and strawberries- is just natural. I like using real fruit in my ice cream because it's yummy and I can lower the amount of sugar I use. 

Strawberry Ice Cream

1 quart dairy free milk (I used hemp, but soy and rice works too.)

1 1/2 cup purred and strained strawberries

1 1/2 tsp xanthun gum

3/4 cup of honey or brown rice syrup

dash of salt

1 tsp vanilla extract

Clean and puree the strawberries. Using a strainer, over a bowl, and stain the strawberry puree to remove most of the seeds. If you want you ice cream to be completely seedless, place cheese cloth over the strainer. In a blender, mix up the milk, syrup or honey, salt, vanilla and xanthun gum. Add the strawberry puree and blend till thick. If you are worried about sugar content, you can add the strawberry puree to the blender before adding the honey or syrup. Taste the mixture to see how sweet it is and then adjust the amount of sweeter accordingly. Add mixture to your ice cream maker and follow the directions by your manufacture.