A blackberry ice cream strictly for grown ups!

Definitely not for the kiddos!  This one contains a wee dram.

This is a nice creamy ice cream that goes down really easily. Of course you don’t have to add the liquor if you don’t want to do so, but it does add a nice dimension to it.

Have your hooch and eat it too!

Because of the liquor, which will lower the freezing point–remember your chemistry??? LOL–it won’t freeze hard as a rock if you choose, like I do, to put it in your deep freeze.  It may also take a little longer to set up in your machine because of this.  I always make sure my ingredients are ice cold.  I also chill my ice cream maker’s bowl and dasher–even though I have a machine with the compressor already in it.  Here’s my machine:

Be careful with the berries though–blackberry juice stains like the devil!

One recipe of custard gives me 2 batches of ice cream in the Lello since the smaller model makes about 1 scant pint.  You can keep the custard in the fridge for about a week if you only use half of it.  I do suggest you keep it in the coldest part of the fridge.  I use a cheapie plastic pitcher from the dollar store as my container since it works quite well for pouring.

No food coloring necessary because of the berry juice

Spiked Blackberry Ice Cream

• 2 cups fresh or frozen (defrosted) blackberries
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup liquor of your choice (I used brandy)
• Custard:
• 3 cups heavy cream
• 1 cup light cream
• 4 egg yolks
• 3/4 cup sugar

Place berries in a medium bowl.  Add the 1/4 cup sugar and the liquor.  Using a mudder -OR- a potato masher, mash berries.  Cover and refrigerate for later use–ice cream relies on a cooked custard that also must be chilled, so I always do the berries and custard at least a day before I make the actual ice cream.


In a small bowl, beat egg yolks.


Heat the creams and 3/4 cup of sugar over medium heat in a 3 quart saucepan, stirring constantly.  When custard is hot (do not boil this!), take about 1 cup of the cream mixture and whisk it into the egg yolks (tempering).  Then add this back to the cream mixture, whisking the tempered eggs into the cream mixture to incorporate. Stir the mixture constantly until it reaches 160 degrees F -OR- mixture will coat the back of a spoon–this should take about 5 minutes–again, do NOT let the mixture boil.


Remove from heat and cool to room temperature.  I stir this to prevent a skin from forming, you could also just remove the skin and discard it once the mixture is cooled.


When custard is room temp, transfer into a covered container and refrigerate until completely chilled.


To make ice cream:  Stir the entire contents of the fruit bowl into the chilled custard. Follow directions for your ice cream maker.  I use a model with a compressor and it takes about 30 minutes to form soft-serve ice cream.  At that point, I transfer to another container to hard freeze, however, it can be served soft if you prefer.  

Spiked Blackberry Ice Cream

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