Blueberry Buttermilk Ice Cream

The past couple of weeks have been a whirlwind. Last weekend I went to an amazing food photography and styling workshop in Plymouth, MA (more on that here), yesterday I took the comprehensive exams for my master's program, and somewhere in there I turned 30.

I actually love birthdays (especially mine), and so far I am feeling good about being 30. Ben's birthday is just a week and a half before mine, so we celebrated with a joint make-your-own ice cream sandwich party. It's hard to imagine anything more fun than smooshing ice cream between cookies with your closest friends!

This ice cream was not present at the party because it hadn't occurred to me yet--I was actually inspired to make this because of all the leftover buttermilk I had after making Ben's birthday cake. (He always wants a gluten cake for his big day, and who am I to deny a birthday boy? It's the only glutinous baking I do all year. I made him this chocolate cake and it was fabulous. The only change I made was using avocado oil instead of canola. The avocado oil is tasteless and worked great in the cake!)

For the party I made a classic vanilla ice cream in my ice cream maker and Nigella Lawson's no-churn coffee ice cream. If you don't have an ice cream maker (or even if you do!) you HAVE to try this no-churn business. I was blown away by the awesome, creamy texture and how easy it was to make. (It is, however, less healthy than what I normally make due to copious amounts of sweetened condensed milk. Worth it for a special occasion, though!)

For cookies I made my salted chocolate chip hazelnut cookies, which were a huge hit (see the recipe here). No one can ever tell they are gluten-free! To facilitate the ice cream sandwich making I made the cookies smaller than I usually do and underbaked them a little. Soooo good. I also made a batch of meringues, which came out a little sticky due to all the humidity. Still yummy, though!

On to this blueberry buttermilk ice cream. It's super refreshing and tastes lighter than most ice creams because the buttermilk is relatively low in fat. The sour edge from the buttermilk is just noticeable enough, and accented by a bit of lemon extract or lemon liqueur. The ice cream is naturally sweetened with raw honey and of course, the sweetness of the blueberries themselves. I used gelatin here to help add a little creaminess back to the ice cream, but you can leave it out if you like--the ice cream will likely just be a bit icier. This one is halfway to being a sherbet anyway, so I'm sure it would still be delicious. This is just the kind of ice cream you want to curl up with on the couch at the end of a hot summer's day!

After making Ben's cake and this ice cream, I STILL have some buttermilk left. Any ideas for using up the last cup or so?

Blueberry Buttermilk Ice Cream
Yield: About 1 quart (6-8 servings)
Prep time: 15 minutes, plus freezing time
Cook time: 5 minutes

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups lowfat buttermilk, divided
2 teaspoons gelatin
1/4 cup raw honey
2 cups frozen blueberries (do not defrost)
2/3 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon lemon extract (or lemon liqueur, such as limoncello)
Pinch of sea salt

Place 1/2 cup of the buttermilk in a small saucepan and sprinkle the gelatin on top. Let the gelatin bloom for 5 minutes, until the surface of the milk appears wrinkled. Set the heat to low and warm the buttermilk, stirring frequently, just until the gelatin dissolves (do not allow the mixture to come to a simmer). Turn off the heat and whisk in the honey until smooth.

Pour the buttermilk and honey mixture into the bowl of a food processor or blender. Add the rest of the buttermilk and all the remaining ingredients and process until smooth.

Transfer the ice cream base to a bowl and freeze for 30 minutes or refrigerate for 2 hours to make sure it's nice and cold. Process in an ice cream maker, transfer to a chilled freezer-safe container, and freeze for 2 hours before scooping and serving. If the ice cream has been frozen much longer than that, let it thaw for about 10 minutes before digging in.

Note: I took these photos after the ice cream had been frozen for only 2 hours, and as you can see it was easy to scoop. After being frozen for a longer time, the ice cream remained delicious but was a little crumblier and more unruly, resisting forming a perfect scoop. Just a heads up for those interested in scoop aesthetics :) 

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