Buttermilk Ice Cream (and Cherry Buttermilk Ice Cream with Cherry Sauce)

I like everything about this creamy, tangy and rich buttermilk ice cream. It's like buttah (buttah-milk, that is). It's fantastic on top of warm fruit crisp or pie (and believe me, it's no slouch in a bowl all by itself). I added homemade maraschino cherries to half the batch to make cherry ice cream. And it was really good, but the flavor of the cherries overpowered the tang from the buttermilk and crème fraîche, so it tasted more like plain old vanilla. Not that there's anything wrong with that. But next time I would save the splurge on crème fraîche and just go ahead and make vanilla to start with. I also used the cherry liqueur from the maraschinos to make a beautiful cherry sauce (the jar of liquid just looked so sad, alone with no cherries bobbing up and down in it). It tasted kind of like a liquid lollipop.

 

BUTTERMILK ICE CREAM

Yield: approx. 2 quarts

2 cups heavy whipping cream

8 large egg yolks

1 cup sugar

2 cups buttermilk

1 cup crème fraîche

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

1/4 teaspoon salt

1.      Bring cream to simmer in heavy medium saucepan.

2.      Whisk egg yolks and sugar in medium bowl to blend. Gradually whisk hot cream into yolk mixture. Return mixture to saucepan and stir constantly over medium-low heat until custard is thick enough to coat back of spoon, about 3 minutes (do not boil).

3.      Pour custard through fine strainer into clean bowl. Cool to room temperature (otherwise it will curdle when you add the buttermilk).

4.      Whisk in buttermilk, creme fraiche, lemon juice, and salt. Chill custard until cold.

5.      Process custard in ice cream maker according to manufacturer's instructions. Transfer ice cream to containers; cover and freeze until firm, at least 4 hours. Ice cream can be made 3 days ahead. Keep frozen. Let soften slightly at room temperature before serving.

from Bon Appétit, March 2008 by Scott Peacock

egg yolks and sugar

whisking hot cream into the egg yolks and sugar

mixed

custard thickened

straining custard

whisking buttermilk/creme fraiche
mixture into the cooled custard

buttermilk custard before churning

churned

buttermilk ice cream

homemade maraschino cherries (straining)

adding halved cherries to buttermilk ice cream

cherry buttermilk ice cream

Add some chocolate chunks if you
want to make homemade Cherry Garcia.

reducing the cherry liqueur from the maraschino cherries

To make the cherry sauce, I used about 2 cups liquid +
1 tablespoon arrowroot (you can substitute cornstarch)
and simmered for about 10 minutes (it thickens
more as it sits, so try not to over reduce - although
you can always loosen it back up with more liquid).

.