Cardamom Blackberry Ice Cream

YOU GUYS: I just finished a most spectacular weekend in Kansas City for my first ever blogging conference, Go Blog Social. Was it a winner? IT WAS A WINNER! {Check out my instagram for some shots of the weekend!} Yeah, I'm using a lot of caps today because I'M SO EXCITED. I won't go into too much detail about the conference today, because I think I might do a post specifically about the weekend itself, but I can't hold back everything. I had so, SO, so much fun. I met so many new friends, and discovered new AMAZING blogs to follow, and am (most importantly) inspired by so many hardworking women with beautiful goals. Not only are these ladies going after it in a serious way, but they're so beautifully kind and inspiring. I'll share my list of new bloggie besties in my post on the weekend! But you should at least check out Erin. and Jessie. and Amanda. and Kit. OK OK I'LL STOP. For now.

Now I'm "home" in Portland to see my family, briefly, before we head off to Asia. This feels like the final calm before the storm — as soon as I get back to Bozeman it will be GO GO GO with getting our stuff into storage, finishing up cookbook duties (photographing), doing other miscellaneous work, Derek finishing his thesis, etc. And waiting for my passport to return in time… hopefully. I seriously am such an idiot for waiting this long to take care of it, and it's honestly very unlike me to be this reckless, so hopefully I don't 'learn my lesson' in the worst way with this one!

In the meantime, I made you some ice cream! I've been so excited about this recipe, which I've had sitting around for a while now, but thought I should wait until summer to share it. Now that I see trees blooming and daffodils up out of the ground (in Kansas City, at least!), I deem it warm enough to ice cream. We're ice creaming, as a verb. Go get your ice cream on!

You all know I'm struggling with a bit of a cardamom addiction. It could be worse, right? I put it in banana bread. I put it in chocolate cake. I put it in ALL SORTS OF THINGS I never even tell you about. Sorry to be holding out on you! Now, I've put it in this ice cream and, let me tell you, it did not disappoint! I made the mistake of taking a tester of custard, before chilling, and nearly eating the entire thing right then and there. Maybe a cardamom pudding is in our future? Luckily, my willpower finally kicked in and I waited the torturous hours for this nectar of the gods to turn into frozen churned milk of the gods! YUM.

Cardamom Blackberry Ice Cream

• Author: by Mary
• Prep Time: 15 mins
• Cook Time: 30 mins
• Total Time: 45 minutes
• Yield: 1 quart 1x

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Ingredients

Units USM Scale 1x2x3x

• 1 cup whole milk
• 1 ½ cups heavy cream
• ½ tsp ground vanilla beans (or 1 bean split and scraped)
• 1 tsp ground cardamom (maybe more to taste)
• 6 large egg yolks
• ¾ cup sugar + ¼ cup sugar for berries
• ¼ teaspoon coarse salt
• 1 ½ cups fresh blackberries

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Instructions

1. Combine the milk and cream in a heavy saucepan. Add the ground vanilla beans (or the split pod and insides) and ground cardamom.
2. Bring the mixture to a simmer over medium heat, then remove from heat and set aside for a moment.
3. In a separate bowl, combine the egg yolks with ¾ cup sugar and the salt. Beat well, then gradually add the warm milk ½ cup at a time, whisking well. Once you've added 1 ½ cups of warm milk, pour the egg mixture into the saucepan with the remaining milk while whisking.
4. Cook the mixture over medium heat, stirring constantly, until it thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon (6-8 minutes). Remove from the heat, pour through a fine mesh sieve (discard the vanilla pod), cover and put in the refrigerator until fully chilled — about two hours.
5. At the same time, combine the blackberries and the ¼ cup of white sugar in a small bowl. Keep it in the refrigerator, but mash with a fork every 45 minutes or so.
6. Once the blackberries have been combined with the sugar for two hours, press half of the berries through a fine mesh sieve or cheesecloth. Discard the seeds and pulp from that half, and mix the syrup back in with the remaining berries.
7. When the custard has fully cooled, mix ⅔ of the blackberries in with the custard and then follow the directions on your ice cream maker. When you're ready to transfer the ice cream from the maker to the freezer, pour half of it into a loaf tin, followed by half of the remaining berries, and marble with a fork. Repeat.
8. Cover and store in an airtight container. Freeze for 4 hours, before serving.

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