Strawberry Creme Fraiche Ice Cream with Mixed Berries
If you ever need to feel a little smug about a creamy dessert you are making, go the way of Giada and toss some creme fraiche into it. It sounds hip, exotic, romantic, and uber-culinary genius all at the same time.
Lately, Ben and I have been devouring Snoqualmie Gourmet Ice Cream’s Creme Friache gelato by the pint-load. Doesn’t sound like much, but when I came upon it for $2 a pint at our local grocer, I snagged it up. And then went back for more. Two bucks is half the price of B&J’s, and this is local. When has anything you purchased locally ever been half the price of the mass marketed stuff? Not to mention, they are located 10 minutes from our place! Date night after-movie adventure with the hunny? Yes please!
Sorry, let the carousel of this conversation come back around and I’ll get back to my point…
Initially, I didn’t think that Ben would take to it the way he did, because he is the pinnacle of “Why would you want to ruin perfectly good ice cream by throwing anything other than vanila into it?” – kinda guy. Well, creme friache isn’t vanilla, it’s even less “something” than vanilla ice cream. No wonder he liked it’s, he’s a minimalist. Not that that is a bad thing. Because this stuff is life altering. Never would you imagine a gelato with less “stuff” in it to be so incredible, but this is.
A couple of weeks ago I won a Cuisnart 1 1/2 quart Ice Cream Maker from Ms. Laruen at Lauren’s Latest. Can I get a “Woot”?! At first, I emailed her to inquire if the “Megan P.” that was referenced on her site was yours truly, noting that if I wasn’t the correct “Megan P.”, then I hope the one that actually won would enjoy it as much as I knew I would. Low and behold, it was me that was the real “Megan P.”, so it got shipped off and it arrived last Friday. *happy dance* Ben was equally as happy because it meant that he didn’t have to buy me one himself, thought with our anniversary coming up, he was now fresh out of ideas.
Last night was the maiden voyage of the beauty, and I was feeling a little smug so I wanted to try and make my own creme fraiche ice cream with a little fluff thrown in. There were a multitude of berries in the fridge needing to be used or tossed, in they went!
This was a very simple procedure, the most difficult part being the waiting an hour “required” for all of the deliciousness to sit and meld together. Yup, I cheated only letting it sit for 30 minutes because I couldn’t take it anymore. And really, it turned out delicious anyway.
~ ¾ c. Whole Milk
~ â…” c. Sugar
~ Pinch of Salt
~ ¾ c. Heavy Cream
~ ¾ cup. Creme Fraiche
~ 2 tsp. Vanilla Extract
~ â…“ c. Fresh Raspberries
~ â…“ c. Fresh Blueberries
This looks amazing! I just added it to my ice cream recipe list. Thanks!!
I just had a "food-gasm"! Oh man does that sound rich, creamy and amazing!
Dusty and I are hooked on the local Billings ice cream as well (Wilcoxsons). It just tastes better than the mass produced stuff and you feel better about supporting the locals too!
Haley @ The Girly Girl Cooks
haha i recognize that world market napkin!
OH EM GEE.
I DIE! How beautiful! An ice cream maker is exactly the sort of thing that I can't justify getting right now (Marcus doesn't eat it and I'm extremely slow at polishing off the pints I have stashed away) but the Food Network has me jonesing for one in a major way.
p.s. I watched the Barefoot Contessa action a Salted Caramel ice cream while I was on the treadmill last week…maybe it could pay a visit to WBACC?
This looks incredible! I love making my own ice cream, and this one looks top notch!
http://chicgeekery.blogspot.com/
this sounds so good.
Sounds lovely! How did you know that I happen to have an ice cream maker that is feeling completely neglected right now? Time to hop on the ice cream bandwagon. 😉
Looks so yummy and refreshing, I love all those berries!
What a treat this is!! Love the flavors you have going on and I'm thinking the texture here would be divine!