It’s strawberry season in Massachusetts! It’s also ice cream season and I’ve been slightly obsessed with making ice cream lately.
I came up with the idea of strawberry Oreo ice cream by combining a couple of ideas. My favorite ice creams of all time contain Oreo cookies. Give me cookies ‘n cream — better yet, give me mint cookies ‘n cream — and I’m a very happy girl.
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But lately, I’ve been craving strawberry especially combined with chocolate. Classic Neapolitan ice cream attempts to meet my berry and chocolate desires, but it’s always tricky getting the right amount of both in your bowl. Plus, then what do you do with the sad block of vanilla left over?
Strawberries, meet Oreos. What a perfect combination — strawberry and chocolate in every cold, creamy bite. I think I have a new favorite!
Strawberry Oreo Ice Cream
Equipment
- Ice Cream Maker
Ingredients
- 8 oz strawberries hulled and cut into quarters
- 1 ½ tbsp triple sec
- 2 tbsp sugar
- ¾ cup whole milk
- ¾ cup half & half
- ¾ cup sugar
- 2 egg yolks
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- t tbsp dehydrated strawberry powder optional
- 10 chocolate sandwich cookies Oreo brand preferred
Instructions
- Combine strawberries, Triple Sec, and 2 tbsp. of sugar in a medium bowl. Mix well and let stand for 10-minutes. Then mash the strawberries with a potato masher until mostly smooth. with some pea-sized chunks of strawberries.
- In a medium saucepan, combine milk, half & half, and the rest of the sugar. Heat to a simmer.
- Meanwhile, whisk egg yolks in a small bowl. When milk mixture comes to a simmer, slowly whisk in half a cup of warm milk to the eggs. Once combined, slowly whisk the egg & milk mixture back into the saucepan with the rest of the milk. Stirring constantly, warm the mixture back to a slow simmer and cook about 10 minutes until slightly thick (the mixture will coat the back of a spoon and when you run your finger through it, the mixture won’t run together. It will look like…melted ice cream which is basically what this is at this point.)
- Strain the mixture through a fine sieve and cool to room temperature. You can speed up the cooling here by placing the container of ice cream base into a larger container filled with ice and water. Stir constantly to bring down the temperature more quickly.
- Once the milk mixture is cooled, add the mashed strawberries — all the juices, too. If you’re using dehydrated strawberry powder, add it here, too. Stir to combine. You may want to whisk if you are adding strawberry powder to break up any clumps. Refrigerate the mixture for at least three hours or until your ice cream base is about 40 degrees fahrenheit.
- In a gallon-size Ziplock bag, smash the Oreos into bite-sized pieces.
- Once the ice cream base is chilled, churn in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's directions — mine took about 15-20 minutes to get to soft-serve consistency. Once at soft-serve consistency, fold in the Oreo chunks.
- Move to a plastic container and freeze for several hours (overnight is best) until hardened.
Notes
- The triple sec in this recipe helps keep the frozen ice cream just slightly soft and scoop-able (vs. hard as a brick.) While any liquor will technically do here, I thought the orange in the triple sec would go nicely though you can hardly taste it. If you want to sub another liquor I’d suggest plain vodka, white rum, or limoncello.
- The dehydrated strawberry powder is optional, but I like it because it adds an extra burst of strawberry and gives the base a pinker hue which is aesthetically pleasing to me. I make mine by buying dehydrated strawberry slices and blasting them in a mini food processor. Whole Foods actually has a decent price on their brand of dehydrated strawberries.
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