Maine Squeeze Ice Cream

For the 4th of July weekend we decided to make some homemade ice cream.  We have a ton of blueberries and some fresh lemon so we came up with this recipe for the "Maine Squeeze".  Maine because when we vacationed in Maine a few years ago we got completely hooked on blueberries, and squeeze for the hint of fresh lemon.  Really this is a great vanilla ice cream base with a swirl of blueberry compote.  I hope you enjoy this as much as we did!  This vanilla base can be used for a whole lot of flavors.  Get creative and leave a comment with what you have tried.

Ingredients:

For the vanilla ice cream base:

• 2 1/2 cups heavy cream
• 1/2 cup half and half
• 1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise and seeds scraped
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 6 eggs

For the blueberry swirl:

• 2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries
• Zest of 1/2 lemon
• 1/2 fresh lemon squeezed
• 2 Tbs honey
• 1 Tbs sugar
• 1/8 tsp corn starch dissolved in 1 Tbs cold water
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• Pinch of salt

Instructions:

For the blueberry swirl:

• Combine the berries, honey, sugar and lemon juice in a medium saucepan.  Cook over medium heat until the blueberries begin to burst.  
• Add the corn starch, salt and vanilla, cook until mixture begins to thicken.  Add lemon zest just at the end.  
• Cool mixture and keep in the fridge until the ice cream is ready.

For the vanilla ice cream base:

• In a medium saucepan combine the cream, half and half, vanilla bean seeds 1/2 cup of the granulated sugar and vanilla extract. Bring to a boil, turn off the heat and let sit for 1 hour.

• In a small bowl, combine the eggs and the remaining 1/2 cup sugar and beat to a homogeneous consistency.

• Bring the cream mixture back to a boil and turn the heat off. Immediately strain and whisk a third of the cream mixture into the egg-sugar mixture and then immediately whisk the egg mixture back into the remaining cream mixture.
• Chill the mixture over an ice water bath.

• Churn the chilled mixture in an ice cream machine according to the manufacturer's directions (30 minutes to 1 hour).

• Pour half of the soft ice cream into a container and top with half of the blueberry swirl.  With a rubber spatula gently fold the blueberry swirl into the ice cream.  Top with the remaining ice cream then blueberry swirl and gently fold again.

Notes:

I find that the vanilla base is a little sweet on it's own but with the tart blueberry lemon swirl it balances out nicely.  If you were using this on it's own or with other falvors, you may want to cut the sugar a bit.