Sweet roasted strawberries & creamy ricotta cheese come together in this perfect for summer homemade ice cream...
Right before summer has officially arrived comes another season that I get pretty excited about each year- peak strawberry season.
And my friends, peak strawberry season is indeed here.
How can you tell?
You can pick up a quart of strawberries at just about any grocery store for less than $2.
Vendors at the local farmers markets can't keep those juicy red jewels of theirs in stock any longer than the first hour of the market.
They are at their juiciest and sweetest right now, so I figured that this is the perfect time to share one of THE BEST homemade ice cream recipes I have created and made yet- my Roasted Balsamic Strawberry & Ricotta Ice Cream.
First, don't knock the balsamic vinegar with the strawberries until you have tried it, my friends. Honestly once the strawberries have been roasted and added into this ice cream, you can't taste the vinegar at all. But the vinegar does add a deep layer of richness to the strawberries.
I happened to have some ricotta cheese in my fridge that I needed to use, and thought why not add to this ice cream? It was totally on a whim and one of the best decisions I have made yet as far as homemade ice cream goes. ;)
Roasted Balsamic Strawberry & Ricotta Ice Cream
by
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 15 minutes, plus 4 hours+ freezing time
Ingredients (8 servings)
- 3 cups of fresh strawberries, hulled and cut in half
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
- 1 cup coconut milk
- 1/2 can (about 7 oz) sweetened condensed milk
- 2 cups heavy cream
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1/2 cup ricotta cheese
- 1/2 container (4 oz) of thawed whipped topping
Instructions
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.
In large bowl, toss together the strawberries, brown sugar, and balsamic vinegar. Spread evenly over the prepared baking sheet.
Roast for 15-20 minutes, stirring halfway through.
Allow to cool completely.
Once the strawberries have cooled, beat together the coconut milk, sweetened condensed milk, heavy cream, vanilla, and ricotta in a large bowl until nice and creamy- about 3-4 minutes. (I like to use my immersion blender for this.)
Fold in 4 oz of thawed whipped topping. Then blend in half of the roasted strawberries.
Transfer to a freezer safe container and freeze for 2 hours, stirring with a rubber or silicone spatula once each hour. After 2 hours of freezing time, fold in the remaining roasted strawberries. Freeze for at least 2 more hours to overnight.
Homemade ice cream freezes much harder than store bought so allow the ice cream to sit out at room temperature for at least 15 minutes before serving.
Scoop into your favorite cones or dishes & enjoy!
My hope is that the next time that I whip up a batch of this Roasted Balsamic Strawberry & Ricotta Ice Cream that I will be making it with our own homegrown strawberries. We discovered a rogue strawberry plant growing alongside our deck a few weeks ago and it is already pretty heavy with little green berries.
We ended up tossing what we thought was our dead potted strawberry plant there last fall, and boom! This summer we have a growing, thriving strawberry plant.
Nature can be very, very cool sometimes. :)
If are looking for even more recipes to use those in-season strawberries in, you might also like my...
