I don’t know if you’ve had this sense recently, but I’m getting the feeling it’s a good year for blackberries!  Our favorite produce store has had blackberry sales pretty much every time we’re there – so I’ve been searching for recipes to use them in.  Naturally, as July was appointed National Ice Cream Month, I figured heading into July it was time to break out the old ice cream maker again.  I’ve always loved the smooth sweet taste of black raspberry ice cream, so I figured giving blackberry ice cream a try would be my next logical step!  I adapted this recipe, adapted by the blog ’Salt and Chocolate’ for blackberries from a recipe originally for raspberry ice cream in David Lebowitz’s “The Perfect Scoop.”  My main changes related to using all half and half, as I was trying to cut the fat just a little…it came out great, perhaps a little firmer out of the freezer than it’s full-fat counterpart would be.  The flavor was perfectly sweet, and the lemon juice definitely helps emphasize the blackberries!  Perfect treat at the end of a long July day.

Blackberry Ice Cream

• 4 cups fresh blackberries
• 3 cups half-and-half
• 1 cup sugar
• 4 egg yolks
• 1 tbsp fresh squeezed lemon juice

Before you start, puree blackberries in a food processor and pass the puree through a fine mesh strainer to get all the seeds out.  Place 1 and 1/2 cups half-and-half in a saucepan with the sugar and heat over low-medium heat until the sugar dissolves.  In a separate bowl, beat together the egg yolks until smooth.  Add about 1/4 cup of the heated half-and-half/sugar mixture to the egg yolks, stirring constantly so that the eggs don’t scramble on you!  Then add the egg yolk mixture back to the saucepan and continue stirring constantly while heating until the mixture reaches 163-168 degrees farenheit – keep it in this range for 5 minutes in order to pasteurize the custard.  Remove custard from the heat.  Pour through mesh strainer into a bowl.  Stir in the remaining half and half, blackberry puree and the lemon juice.  Chill completely.  Freeze in your ice cream maker according to manufacturers instructions.  Enjoy!