Homemade Fresh Fruit Ice Cream

One of our family’s favorite summertime treats is my mom’s famous homemade ice cream! It’s the perfect refreshing treat during the dog days of summer, and it also gives you a chance to highlight the delicious, ripe fruits that are so abundant this time of year.

My family loves using fresh strawberries in this recipe, but you could just as easily use peaches, raspberries, blackberries, or whatever your family’s favorite fruit may be! So without further ado, here is my mom’s “Foolproof Homemade Ice Cream” recipe for your summer enjoyment! :-)

Mom’s Foolproof Homemade Ice Cream

Ingredients:

• 2 pints fresh raspberries or strawberries, or 6-8 fresh peaches
• 1/2 cup lemon juice
• 2 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 1/2 quarts half and half

Directions:

Mash the berries (or peeled and sliced peaches) with a potato masher, or pulse them in your blender or food processor until they reach a consistency you like. (I prefer not to mash the fruit up too much — I like bigger chunks of fruit in my ice cream!)

Combine the fruit, lemon juice, sugar, and half and half, then pour the mixture into an ice cream maker and churn.

You can serve the ice cream as soon as it’s done churning, but I recommend transferring it to one or more containers and freezing it for an hour or so to let it firm up a bit more.

Dig in and enjoy!

What’s your favorite summertime treat??