Northwest Blackberry Ice Cream with Dark Chocolate Chunks

Yes Sir-y… I have officially died and gone to ice cream heaven. When I first saw homemade blackberry ice cream on P-Dub’s site I knew I had to try it. I whipped up a batch today and made some modifications and literally licked the ice cream maker when it was done. Heaven.

2 pints fresh blackberries (about 24 ounces)
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups half-and-half
1 cup sugar
5 large egg yolks
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
12 ounces dark or semi-sweet chocolate, chopped into small chunks

Add blackberries to a medium saucepan with 1/4 cup sugar and lemon juice. Cook over low heat, covered, for 20 to 25 minutes. Mash with a potato masher to break up and then drain using a fine mesh strainer, pressing berries to extract as much juice/puree as possible. Set aside.

Heat half-and-half and 1 cup sugar in a separate saucepan over low heat. Turn off heat when mixture is totally heated.

Add heavy cream to a separate bowl.

Beat egg yolks with an electric mixer until yolks are pale yellow and slightly thick.

Temper the egg yolks by slowly drizzling in some of the hot half-and-half mixture, about a cup total, whisking constantly. After that, pour the egg yolk/half-and-half mixture into the pan containing the rest of the half-and-half mixture. Cook over low to medium-low heat (depending on how hot your stove gets) until thick enough to coat the back of a spoon, stirring constantly. Drain custard using a fine mesh strainer, then pour into the bowl with the cream. Stir to combine.

Add blackberry juice/puree to the cream/custard mixture and stir. Chill mixture completely in refrigerator for 2 hours, then freeze in an ice cream maker until thick. My machine took 40 minutes. Add chocolate chunks the last 5 minutes of mixing time. Place container in freezer to harden for an additional two hours.

Adapted from: Pioneer Woman