Strawberry Stracciatella Ice Cream

During my freshman year in college, I had a friend who was adamant that chocolate and fruit should not mix in ice-cream based desserts. Crazy, I know. And so just to tease this person, when we would get dessert in the dining hall I would often make myself a sundae with chocolate ice cream and strawberry sauce, or strawberry ice cream with chocolate sauce, and revel in every bit of chocolatey, fruity deliciousness. Everyone knows chocolate and strawberry in any form is a perfect combination, right? Right.

I planned to make strawberry ice cream earlier this week with some of the gorgeous and sweet organic strawberries stacked up in my fridge. Specifically, I was going to try the strawberry sour cream ice cream from The Perfect Scoop.

Halfway through making the recipe, I realized that the sour cream I thought I had on the top shelf of my fridge was – surprise! – not there. Whoops. Lucky for me I keep a supply of at least 3 containers of Fage yogurt in the fridge at all times, and I figured the tang of the yogurt would be kind of similar to the tang of sour cream.

The idea to add the stracciatella — which is basically melted chocolate, drizzled into the ice cream at the very last minute while it’s churning so it creates streaks and chips and flakes of chocolate — was a last minute light-bulb moment, and yum yum, it turned out to be quite tasty. When the melted chocolate hits the cold ice cream, it solidifies, and if you keep drizzling it slowly and mixing as you go, the end result is a thoroughly chocolate-studded and streaked ice cream. You get some bits of chocolate in every bite.

Besides the chips and chunks and streaks of chocolate, the strawberry flavor is clean and sweet…and the color! Pretty, brilliant bubble-gum pink. Gorgeous and tasty!

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Adapted from The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz

Ingredients
1 pound strawberries
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon kirsch or vodka (optional)
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup Greek yogurt
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

5 ounces chocolate, melted

Directions

Wash and slice the strawberries. Place them in a large bowl with the sugar and kirsch or vodka (if using.) Give them a stir until the sugar begins to dissolve, then let them sit at room temperature for 1 hour, giving them an occasional gentle stir.

After they’ve macerated for 1 hour, place them in the bowl of a food processor or blender with the accumulated juices. Add the heavy cream, yogurt and lemon juice. Blend until smooth, about 1 minute. Chill this mixture in the fridge for at least 1 hour.

Churn the mixture in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s directions. When the ice cream is getting close to being done, melt the chocolate either via double boiler method or in the microwave (I used the microwave, melting the chocolate in a Pyrex liquid measuring cup in 30 second intervals on 50% power, stirring after each time.) When the ice cream is just about finished churning, while the motor is still running, slowly drizzle the melted chocolate into the ice cream in a thin stream. Try not to hit the machine’s paddle. I found it easiest to drizzle a little chocolate in, then use a spoon to swirl it around while it’s churning. If you find the chocolate begins to clump up, you can drizzle it in layers when you pack the ice cream into its storage container, swirling it with a spoon as you go.

Transfer the churned ice cream to a storage container, and freeze.

Makes about 1 1/4 quarts.