This ice cream is so easy to make. Use fresh or frozen blackberries in this homemade ice cream recipe to enjoy the taste of summer all year long!
Preparing the Vegetable Garden
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Every summer we put out a large garden. And every summer we fight the good fight against the weeds. Serious amounts of weeds. The land where our garden is now used to be an outdoor horse arena. When we bought the farm, horses hadn’t used that area in a while, but the ground was still packed down really tightly. We have been trying for years to reverse that long-term compaction, and get the soil loose so plants can grow. One unfortunate side effect of that is that we have become very good at growing weeds, as well as garden plants.
This was supposed to be our green bean patch last year. It got completely overtaken by weeds! Our sweet corn, luckily, was a different story, and we had a bumper crop last summer!
Think of soil like snow. When it first snows, it lays light and fluffy on the ground. But when you walk on it, or drive your car over it, it packs down and compresses. No air or water can get through, and it is much harder to shovel.
Soil is like that. Top soil should be somewhat “fluffy.” But when you walk on it, or a tractor drives over it, or horses exercise on it, it gets packed down and compressed. We call that compacted. When soil is compacted, it is hard for plants to put down roots – the ground is packed too tightly for the roots to grow. It’s also hard for water to get down to the roots – most of the water just runs off the surface, instead of seeping down into the soil.
For our garden, we have been fighting compaction in two ways. First, we have been adding lots of composted cow manure to the soil, both as a nutrient source and as a way to break up the compacted soil. Second, we use a small plow attached to a tractor to work up the compacted ground, loosen it up, and mix in the composted manure.
Composted cow manure is a fantastic fertilizer. And while it is great for garden plants, it’s also great for weeds! We have such a big problem with Jimson weed, pigweed, and plain old grass growing in our garden. It is a constant battle to keep the weeds from taking over our plants!
One place we don’t have to worry as much about weeds is with our blackberry bushes. They are on a different part of our farm, and stand separate from the garden. (Actually, they are right in the middle of the yard, and we need to do something to keep them a little more contained!)
These blackberry bushes are very prolific, and give us gallons of huge, juicy blackberries every summer. We make blackberry cobblers and blackberry ice cream all summer long… and still have plenty of blackberries left to freeze for later! We usually make this homemade ice cream in our 6-quart White Mountain ice cream maker… But I’ve adapted the recipe for a 1.5-quart countertop Cuisinart ice cream maker. (Because 6 quarts of ice cream is a lot!!)
Homemade Blackberry Ice Cream Recipe
I made this blackberry ice cream with frozen blackberries. You can use fresh or frozen. If you’re starting with frozen berries, just thaw them before you get started.
The type of milk you use will make a difference in the texture of your ice cream. I chose whole milk, because that’s what we had handy, and because I like the consistency of the ice cream. Using milk with a lower fat percent (2%, 1%, or skim milk) will make your ice cream not quite as thick and creamy. Using half-and-half or heavy cream will give you a thicker ice cream. Use a total of 2-1/4 cups of milk, but mix and match any way you want!
If you don’t finish all the ice cream in one sitting, stash it in the freezer for later. I love these Tovolo Glide-a-Scoop Ice Cream Tubs. They get the homemade ice cream frozen to just the right consistency!
Have you ever made frozen yogurt? It’s a little different from ice cream.
Enjoy!
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Homemade Blackberry Ice Cream
Ingredients
- 1 cup blackberries
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2-1/4 cups whole milk
Instructions
- In a small bowl, mix the blackberries and sugar.
- Transfer the blackberries to a food processor. Add the vanilla and salt, and roughly chop the mixture to your desired consistency. (More finely chopped fruit will freeze more evenly.)
- Transfer the blackberry mixture back into a bowl, and add the milk. Stir to combine.
- Assemble and turn on ice cream maker. Pour ice cream mixture into the ice cream maker and let it freeze (about 15-20 minutes). Serve immediately.
- If you want the ice cream to freeze harder, transfer the ice cream to a freezer-safe container and freeze for at least 1 hour. Let ice cream sit at room temperature for 5-10 minutes before serving.
Hi there, Your Blackberry Ice cream looks good, however, shouldn’t you cook the blackberries and sugar for about 20 minutes? After that you can put them through a fine strainer to get out all the seeds and pulp. You don’t want to have a grainy texture.
Hi, DeAnn. Yes, you can cook the blackberries and strain them before you make the ice cream if you want. We don’t mind the seeds, so I go the easy route and just toss the berries in. Sometimes, I will get out our (referral link) SauceMaster and juice the berries before I make the ice cream – this gives all the yummy blackberry flavor without any of the seeds!
Searched through so many recipes wondering why everyone wanted to get rid of the seeds?! So glad to find your simple, seeded recipe 🙂 It’s in the ice cream maker as I write but if it tastes anywhere near as good as the unfrozen mixture I’m going to be in heaven!! Also got the 10 year olds thumbs up! Thanks!
Hi, Melissa! I do make a seedless version of this ice cream… sometimes. It’s a lot of work to get rid of those pesky blackberry seeds, and who has time for that when there’s an ice cream emergency? So glad this recipe has your stamp of approval and your 10-year-old’s thumbs up! Thanks for stopping by!