Undeniably soft and creamy vanilla ice cream and sweet strawberry ice cream are swirled together with buttery bits of shortbread cookies!
Strawberry season is in full swing, and lately I haven’t been able to get enough of this juicy crimson berry. Whether they’re served on top of a thick stack of Belgian waffles, baked up in a delicious strawberry rhubarb pie, or layered between fluffy shortcakes, I simply can’t get enough of this berry.
Oh, and since I mentioned shortcake, allow me to introduce you to this chilly and divinely cream treat…
STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE ICE CREAM
This Strawberry Shortcake Ice Cream combines all of the delicious elements of the classic strawberry shortcake, but in frozen form! Creamy vanilla ice cream and sweet strawberry ice cream are swirled together with buttery bits of shortbread cookies. Made with REAL strawberries, this ice cream is definitely NOT your typical artificially-flavored store-bought strawberry ice cream.
Moreover, this is a no-churn ice cream, which means you don’t need any special equipment to make it! Yippee!!
Now if you’re new to the no-churn ice cream method, here’s how it works. Basically, you whip up a pint (2 cups) of heavy cream until thick and fluffy. Then you combine it with a can of sweetened condensed milk along with any other ingredients you wish to flavor it with. A few simple examples might include:
- Adding cocoa powder for chocolate ice cream
- Adding mint extract and chocolate chips for mint chip ice cream
- Adding chopped Oreo cookies for cookies n’ cream ice cream.
As you can see, the options are pretty much endless when it comes to this no-churn ice cream formula, which is why I’ve already made several different renditions from Blackberry Crisp Ice Cream to Brownie Batter Ice Cream to Cinnamon Roll Ice Cream and even Unicorn Ice Cream! I’ve also had a lot of tasty successes using no-churn ice cream for ice cream sandwiches. By the way, with the 4th of July just around the corner, these Red Velvet, White, and Blue Ice Cream Sandwiches would be perfect for your upcoming celebration!
But BEFORE you dash on over to that recipe, you’ll definitely want to get the scoop on this one. No pun intended! (Actually, pun TOTALLY intended!)
As I mentioned earlier, your base for the ice cream basically includes freshly-whipped cream and sweetened condensed milk. Before incorporating the sweetened condensed milk into the whipped cream, you’ll add a splash of vanilla. This is your vanilla base.
To make the strawberry half, you’ll need to make up a strawberry sauce. First, you’ll place 12 ounces of sliced strawberries into a food processor and puree them until completely smooth. Transfer the pureed strawberries to a medium saucepan, add some granulated sugar, and stir the mixture over medium heat until it begins to simmer.
Once it starts simmering, pour the strawberry mixture into a fine mesh strainer and use a rubber spatula to push out as much juice from the berry solids as possible. You should end up with 3/4 – 1 cup juice. Place the berry juice in the refrigerator and allow it to cool completely. You can also chill it in the freezer to speed up the cooling process. Just make sure to stir it every 10 minutes so that it doesn’t become frozen solid.
Once it’s COMPLETELY cool, you’re ready to stir the strawberry sauce into the ice cream. But first! Remove half of the ice cream so that you have one half that’s just vanilla. Gently fold the strawberry sauce into the other half. Try not to stir too much or you’ll deflate the ice cream.
Now it’s time to join these two luscious ice creams into one! Start by dropping a few spoonfuls of the vanilla ice cream into a freezer-safe pan. (I prefer to use a loaf pan.) Then drop a few spoonfuls of strawberry ice cream in between the spoonfuls of vanilla ice cream. Sprinkle some chopped shortbread cookies on top, then repeat this process 2-3 more times until you’ve used up all the ice cream and cookies. By the way, I used Keebler’s Sandies Shortbread Cookies. They have a similar flavor and texture to shortcake and they’re not too sweet.
The ice cream needs to chill in the freezer for at least 6 hours, but if you can chill it overnight, even better!
Seriously, who needs Baskin & Robbins or Ben & Jerry when you can whip up an ice cream as deliciously tempting as this Strawberry Shortcake Ice Cream?
Strawberry Shortcake Ice Cream
Ingredients
- ¾ pound chopped fresh strawberries
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 2 cups heavy cream
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 (14 oz) can sweetened condensed milk
- 1 ½ cup chopped shortbread cookies
Instructions
- Place the strawberries into a food processor and pulse until completely pureed.
- Transfer pureed strawberries to a medium saucepan and add the sugar. Cook over medium heat until mixture begins to simmer.
- Pour mixture through a fine mesh sieve, using a rubber spatula to push as much juice from the berry solids as possible. You should end up with about 3/4 - 1 cup berry juice. Transfer berry juice to a glass measuring cup and chill in the refrigerator until cooled completely.
- In the chilled bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whip the heavy cream until stiff peaks form.
- Pour sweetened condensed milk into a large mixing bowl. Stir in vanilla. Gently fold a third of the whipped cream into the condensed milk until combined. Add the rest, and continue folding until you see just a few streaks of white.
- Remove half of the mixture, scooping it into another bowl. To this half of the mixture, fold in the cooled berry juice until just combined.
- Drop a few spoonfuls of the berry custard and vanilla custard into a freezer-safe container. Sprinkle with some of the chopped shortbread cookies. Repeat this layering process 2-3 more times until you've used up both custards and all of the cookies. Using a skewer or butter knife, swirl figure-eights throughout the ice cream.
- Chill the ice cream in the freezer for at least 6 hours, preferably overnight.
- Scoop, serve, and enjoy!