I decided to try making this ice cream, knowing that it would be rather more difficult than the other ice creams described in this section. With raspberries you get seeds and seeds are not found in the best commercial ice creams, so the trick is to make the ice cream without seeds. The taste intensity is a second consideration, so enough ripe berries must be used to get the right taste. That is the rub. When was the last time you even saw ripe black raspberries for sale? Worry not.
As you will read below, the first times I made this ice cream I used a black raspberry concentrate syrup to get the flavor I wanted, and juice from blueberries to get the desired color. Here I am years later with lots of black raspberry bushes and now I use juice and pulp from my black raspberries for color and flavor. Wow! If you happen to have access to black raspberries then use a pint of them and heat them in the microwave oven, then use an electric mixer to help separate pulp and juice from the seeds. Then process that mixture to separate out the seeds from the pulp and juice. I use an accessory for my Kitchen-Aid mixer designed to do just that, and it works well. But if you don't have that accessory you can use a fine sieve and a wooden spoon and press the juice and pulp through the sieve. You can then proceed with the recipe below, using only 1/3 the amount of blackberry concentrate syrup and no blueberries. I also added about 1/4 teaspoon of Xanthan gum to the ice cream, gradually, while it was in final mixing, and that added to the creaminess of the final ice cream. I noticed that the intensity of the fruit flavor and the ice cream composition reminded me of a product somewhere between a gelato and an ice cream. What a delicious result! Now we will get back to my original recipe.
I enjoy a challenge. What I did first was verify that the Ben and Jerry’s® Homemade Ice Cream and Dessert Book© had a recipe I could use. They had a recipe but it was clearly screwed up. That is the second time I’ve found a bad recipe in that book and now I’m starting to doubt their sincerity (or at least their ability to pay attention to detail) in helping ordinary people make top quality ice cream at home. Well, I do give them credit for a great cream base recipe and some good background information on making ice cream. But why, pray tell, would they ever recommend making raspberry ice cream with the seeds in it?! There were other mistakes as well but I will forego mentioning them now and concentrate on making great ice cream.
Speaking of concentrating, that was my solution to the missing supply of black raspberries. I bought natural black raspberry concentrate via the Internet from a company named Natures Flavors® in Orange CA. The web address is www.naturesflavors.com. Different sizes of various real fruit concentrates are available and as you might guess the smaller quantities are quite expensive compared to larger quantities. Knowing my propensity to plow ahead you know that I bought a gallon of highly concentrated black raspberry juice. I could have paid $10 for four ounces but instead I spent $85 for a gallon, plus shipping. Why do anything half way? Dive in with all four feet! Little did I know that one drop of the product is recommended as a single serving! Well, they understate how much is needed but the product is excellent, thus, who needs fresh black raspberries? Not me, at least for this frozen dessert.
I attempted my first batch of black raspberry ice cream by doing what I thought would work. I was mistaken. Between my errors and those of Ben and Jerry the ice cream was too flat in taste and too light in color, and I was even forced to use food coloring in excessive amounts to get close to the right color. But now I have an improved recipe after thinking about needed changes, and you get the benefit of my experience. And voila! The modified recipe, shown below, is perfect.
First, when making ice cream from a flavored concentrate that can’t provide color you can use a secondary fruit that will not interfere with the flavor but which will provide natural color (like blueberries) … not the artificial stuff. Second, Ben and Jerry’s recipe had an internal conflict, saying that the fruit was very tart, yet calling for the addition of lemon juice. What to do? The answer is that when you use the concentrate you must add lemon juice to achieve the tartness necessary to avoid a bland ice cream. Sugar provides sweetness and the fruit concentrate provides the special flavor, but the lemon juice is critical to achieving a balance between creaminess, fruitiness and tartness. Enough said.
Let’s get on with the improved recipe and enjoy perfection.
Ingredients: (Makes 1½ to 2 quarts of ice cream)
2 cups of heavy cream
1 cup of half and half
2 extra large or jumbo eggs
1¼ cups of sugar
Juice extract from one cup of blueberries
Black raspberry concentrate … 1 to 1¼ tbsp. to make 1½ quarts of ice cream
3 tbsp. of fresh lemon juice (juice from one typical large fresh lemon)
1 tsp. of natural vanilla extract
Directions:
Put the blueberries into a one quart saucepan with ½ cup of water. Bring them to a simmer on medium heat, crush the berries with a fork and simmer the mixture on very low heat while stirring for five minutes. Process the juice and the crushed berries through a sieve or a colander to extract the colored liquid. Set the extract aside and allow it to cool to room temperature, or briefly put it into the freezer.
Break the eggs into a five or six quart electric mixer bowl and mix them on medium speed until they are frothy. Add the sugar and mix until well blended, around five minutes. Add the vanilla and the lemon juice and continue to mix for one minute.
Add the extracted berry juice to the mixer bowl and mix well. Add the cream, half and half, and the black raspberry concentrate and mix thoroughly for two to three minutes on medium speed.
Transfer the mixture to a gelato maker and proceed to make the ice cream. When it is fairly stiff (about twenty-five minutes), transfer the ice cream to a two quart plastic container with a tight fitting lid. Put the container into the deep freeze for four hours or more to finish hardening the ice cream. Serve the ice cream and be delighted.
Other considerations:
The addition of any liquid product other than cream or half and half when making ice cream may cause the ice cream to be less creamy. In this recipe I added extracted berry juice in a small amount of water to obtain good color so that is one example of necessary use of a non-cream based liquid addition. One way to accommodate the potential loss of creaminess is to increase the overall amount of cream, or, as I have done in this recipe, replace the normal amount of milk in Ben and Jerry’s cream base recipe with half and half. You will learn as you experiment what works best for you and that is what really matters. Note that as you change overall volume by adding cream or half and half you also need to consider changing amounts of flavorings, etc., to keep the right ratio.