Tags
Basil, Basil Ice Cream, blackberry, Blackberry Jam, CSA, Grand Army Plaza Greenmarket, Ice cream, Purple basil, Recipe
Today I was planning to test out our backyard grill for dinner but Mother Nature had another idea. (This rain needs to stop!) Luckily we got in some good BBQ time out in Long Island yesterday. I made this for dessert after our strip steaks from Arcadian Pastures (yum!) with potatoes and onions and corn on the grill…pan. Tasty meal!
I’ve been using my CSA purple basil in a lot of dinners lately but I wanted to make something that really showed off the basil. Of course there is pesto but I wanted to do something different. I’m not really sure where I got the idea to make basil ice cream but I think I just wanted to experiment with making ice cream again. I thought something fruity would be good in it and decided to make a blackberry jam to swirl in. The recipe for the basil ice cream came from Epicurious. The jam recipe I just made up. The ice cream was really good and unique. It was really creamy and the blackberry jam added a nice tartness to it. It has a great color too.
Purple Basil and Blackberry Ice Cream
Makes about 3 cups
Ingredients for ice cream:
2 cups whole milk
3 tablespoons chopped basil
1/2 cup sugar
4 large egg yolks
1/2 cup cold heavy cream
Ingredients for blackberry jam:
1/2 pint blackberries
1/4 cup sugar
Directions:
Bring milk, basil, 1/4 cup sugar and a pinch of salt to a boil in a 2-quart heavy saucepan and remove from heat. Let steep for 30 minutes. Blend mixture using a hand blender until basil is finely chopped.
Beat together yolks and remaining 1/4 cup sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer until thick and pale, about 1 minute. Add milk in a stream, beating until well combined. Pour mixture back into saucepan and cook over moderate heat, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens and coats the back of a wooden spoon. Do not boil. Strain mixture through a fine mesh sieve. Refrigerate until cold. I let mine sit overnight. If you don’t want to wait you can set the bowl over a larger bowl of ice water and stir. Make jam, see below.
Stir in the cream and freeze in an ice cream maker.
Transfer to an airtight container and swirl in jam.
Freeze for a least 2 hours or until hardened.
Jam directions:
Cook blackberries and sugar in a saucepan over medium low heat. Smash up the berries with a spoon. Cook until the berries break down and thickens. I processed mine through a food mill but you could pass it through a fine mesh sieve. Refrigerate until cold. You will stir this in after the ice cream comes out of the ice cream maker.
Made From Scratch 
Everyone has gone blackberry mad at the moment, including me. Looks really yum, and a great idea!
Thanks! Tis the season.
Very interesting ice cream flavour and I would give it a try 🙂
Thanks! It is really good!
Great flavor combo I have also tried but am slightly perplexed by your results. Your recipe title says Purple basil but the recipe itself says basil…which one did you use?
I used purple basil in an ice cream recipe similar to your and as soon as I combined the egg yolks the color of the ice cream was grey. In your picture the ice cream looks greenish yellow. Are you sure you were using purple basil and not regular basil or Thai Basil? My recipe had one more egg yolk but also an additional 1/2 cup of cream and 1/4 cup more sugar.
I definitely used purple basil, not sure which variety. I don’t taste much of a difference between that and regular basil so I just specified basil in the recipe. The color went from a light lavender while it was steeping, to greyish after being pureed and came out of the freezer green. No idea how that happened!