TWD: Riesling Ice Cream with Strawberry Swirl

Vanilla is just so vanilla. You know? (No offense to Lynne, whose choice this was) Yeah, I know that if you use real vanilla, you can get floral notes, spicy notes, fruity notes, yada yada yada. But in the end, the feeling from people is that vanilla is a code word for boring. So when vanilla ice cream is on the table, it's inevitably accompanied by chocolate sauce, caramel sauce, sprinkles, and whipped cream. It has to get fancied up, y'know?


So I, um, fancied it up a bit. Otherwise known as likkered it up a bit. In a completely refined sort of way though, I promise! The addition of some sweet, late harvest riesling, then a swirl of pureed strawberries (cooked up with some sugar and more riesling) definitely puts this one in the refined category. Not that I'm refined or anything, don't go getting any ideas.


And, at a loss for words because I'll be posting this while at work and knowing that I have 6 more hours of work staring at me in the face, I'm out. Cheers, you super awesome TWDers!


Riesling Ice Cream with Strawberry Swirl
adapted from BFMHTY, Perfect Scoop, and Epicurious

1 1/3 cups 2% milk
1 1/3 cups heavy cream
1/2 cup sweet riesling
4 egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
strawberry puree (recipe below)

Bring the milk and cream just to a boil in a saucepan on the stove. In a bowl, whisk together the yolks and sugar until slightly thickened. When milk and cream are hot, slowly drizzle 1/3 of the mixture into the yolks, whisking constantly. Once the yolks are heated up nicely, pour the yolk mixture back into the saucepan with the rest of the milk. Cook over low-medium heat until the mixture is thickened and coats the back of a spoon. Take off the heat and stir in the riesling and vanilla extract. Put in the refrigerator for at least 6-8 hours before churning.

Churn the ice cream according to your machine's instructions. When removing ice cream to a container, spoon in alternating bits of ice cream and strawberry puree. Freeze for 2-3 hours before eating.

For the strawberry puree:
1 1/2 cups strawberries, hulled and halved
1/4 cup sugar (depending on sweetness of strawberries)
2 Tbsp riesling

Cook all ingredients over medium heat until strawberries have broken down. Puree and cool in the refrigerator.