Bi-Rite Creamery's Strawberry Balsamic Ice Cream

This bright, fresh, and impressively fruity ice cream is made with a touch of balsamic vinegar, which adds sweet complexity and a pop of acidity.

By Max Falkowitz
Updated April 30, 2024
Closeup of a triple scoop of Strawberry Balsamic Ice Cream, served in a small white bowl.

Serious Eats / Robyn Lee

Why It Works

  • Two additions of balsamic vinegar perk up the strawberry flavor with extra acid and add subtle caramel notes to the ice cream base.
  • Cooking the strawberries for a judicious amount of time preserves their flavor while reducing their water content, which keeps the texture of the ice cream relatively smooth.

Strawberry ice cream is a beautiful thing, but make it at home and you'll find dragons lurking. Melissa Clark phrased the problem well in 2007: Strawberries freeze into icicle chunks and make for a disappointing scoop. Pureeing your berries into your base helps, but only if you cook out a lot of their water; even then, you miss the texture of whole fruit (and your proto-jam tastes "cooked" more than "fresh.")

So I was skeptical about the strawberry balsamic ice cream recipe in Bi-Rite Creamery's Sweet Cream and Sugar Cones, which calls for cooking the berries down to a jam, puréing them, and whisking them into a cooked custard base. Would I like this, I asked, especially after finding tart and tangy strawberry ice cream bliss with macerated strawberry and goat cheese ice cream. It turns out I had nothing to fear: this is a bright, fresh, and impressively fruity ice cream that rises above the strawberry pack. A touch of balsamic vinegar adds sweet complexity and some of the acidity lost by cooking the fruit.

Why I Picked This Recipe: Everyone should have a good berry ice cream in their repertoire, and this fits the bill nicely. I was looking for a fruit ice cream generous on flavor but without cloying sweetness. The balsamic part promises and delivers.

What Worked: Even with lame, out of season strawberries, this tasted refreshingly honest. It's berries and cream, pure and simple, with a touch of balsamic kick. I didn't strain my strawberry puree, and I'm glad I didn't—I love the tiny, crunchy seeds.

What Didn't: Compared to Bi-Rite's other ice creams, this is definitely firmer and more icy. It's the hazard of using fruit in ice cream, and honestly one I'm okay with. But if you want a transcendentally creamy scoop, this isn't the one for you. Also, the recipe instructions on cooking the strawberries aren't very precise. You have to do it mostly by feel, which means you have to decide for yourself how to balance cooking out the water from the berries against not overcooking them.

Suggested Tweaks: No tips to overcome this problem, sadly. It's the nature of the beast. You'd do best to eat this as soft serve or let it soften on the counter for 10 minutes before scooping.

April 2012

Recipe Details

Bi-Rite Creamery's Strawberry Balsamic Ice Cream

Prep 10 mins
Cook 15 mins
Active 60 mins
Churning/Freezing Time 6 hrs 30 mins
Total 6 hrs 55 mins
Serves 6 to 8 servings
Makes 1 quart
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Ingredients

For the Strawberry Purée:

  • 1 1/2 pints (3 cups) strawberries, hulled and halved or quartered

  • 2 1/2 tablespoons sugar

  • 2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar

For the Base:

  • 5 large egg yolks

  • 1/2 cup sugar

  • 1 3/4 cups heavy cream

  • 3/4 cup 1% or 2% milk

  • 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

  • 2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar

Directions

  1. Cook the berries: Combine the berries with the 2 1/2 tablespoons sugar and 2 teaspoons vinegar in a large skillet. Put the pan over medium heat and cook, stirring frequently, until the strawberries are soft and the liquid they release has reduced somewhat, 6 to 8 minutes.

  2. Let cool slightly, then transfer the berries and their juice to a blender or food processor. Purée until smooth and refrigerate.

  3. Make the base: In a medium heatproof bowl, whisk the yolks just to break them up, then whisk in half of remaining sugar (1/4 cup). Set aside.

  4. In a heavy stainless steel pan, stir together the cream, milk, salt, and the last of the sugar (1/4 cup) and put the pan over medium-high heat. When the mixture approaches a bare simmer, reduce the heat to medium.

  5. Carefully scoop out about 1/2 cup of the hot cream mixture and, whisking the eggs constantly, add the cream to the bowl with the yolks. Returning to the pan of cream on the stove, use a heatproof spatula to stir the cream as you slowly pour the egg and cream mixture from the bowl back into the pan.

  6. Continue to cook the mixture carefully over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture is thickened, coats the back of a spatula, and leaves a clear mark when you run your finger across it, 1 to 2 minutes longer.

  7. Strain the base through a fine-mesh strainer and into a clean container. Set the container into an ice bath, wash your spatula, and use it to stir the base occasionally until it is cool. Then cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate the base for at least 2 hours or overnight.

  8. Freeze the ice cream: Whisk the strawberry purée and the remaining 2 teaspoons vinegar into the chilled base.

  9. Freeze in your ice cream machine according to the manufacturer's instructions. While the ice cream is churning, put the container you'll use to store the ice cream into the freezer. Enjoy right away or, for a firmer ice cream, freeze for at least 4 hours.

Special Equipment

Blender or food processor, ice cream maker

Read More

Nutrition Facts (per serving)
370Calories
26gFat
29gCarbs
7gProtein
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Nutrition Facts
Servings: 6 to 8
Amount per serving
Calories370
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 26g33%
Saturated Fat 15g76%
Cholesterol 208mg69%
Sodium 113mg5%
Total Carbohydrate 29g11%
Dietary Fiber 1g5%
Total Sugars 27g
Protein 7g
Vitamin C 39mg193%
Calcium 99mg8%
Iron 1mg5%
Potassium 238mg5%
*The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.
(Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate.)

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