Homemade Ice Cream

Summer means hot nights and hotter days, and one of the best ways to cool down is with a bowl of everyone’s favorite frozen treat: ice cream. Take advantage of one of summer’s sweetest crops—blackberries—for this particular recipe. It comes to us courtesy of The Food Channel (thefoodchannel.com), and it blends that tasty little berry with an herb that you don’t always see on the dessert menu. 

Blackberry Sage Ice Cream
Serves 8

Ingredients
3 sprigs fresh sage
2 cups heavy cream
½ cup milk
4 egg yolks

Directions
In a saucepan, over medium-high heat, bring the sage, cream and milk to a boil. Remove from heat, and steep for 20 minutes. Discard the sage. Prepare an ice water bath. In a small mixing bowl, whisk the egg yolks and sugar. Slowly pour in some of the hot cream to temper the eggs. Pour the eggs into the cream, and continue to cook for 2 to 3 minutes, or until the mixture coats the back of a spoon and steam rises from the top. In a separate bowl, whisk the corn syrup and cream cheese, and then whisk into the cream mixture until smooth. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve into a large Ziploc bag, and chill over an ice bath. Freeze in an ice cream machine for 30 minutes or according to the machine’s directions. Scoop ice cream out of the machine, and fold in the blackberries. Spoon into a freezer-proof container, and keep frozen until ready to use.