Blackberries are in season and they pair amazing with fresh, organic cream. Aged balsamic vinegar reduced with sugar provides an unexpected salty topping for your fresh ice cream. Get ready to cheat and like it, because here’s the delicious recipe.

Three notes that apply to all ice cream before you start:

1. Ice cream generally has few ingredients, so make those ingredients count: buy the best and freshest. If you are buying your blackberries from Costco (Mom!), you’re doing it wrong
2. Your ice cream maker, unless you are blessed to have the $300 version, must be pre-frozen and your ingredients must be cold. Give yourself time to do both properly
3. Drink a Coyote Canyon Sangiovese while you make this recipe. It pairs perfectly and I needed 3 bullet points to feel valid about this whole bullet point thing

Ingredients

For Ice Cream:
2 1/2 quarts     blackberries
1c                      sugar
2c                      whipping cream
2c                      half & half
2tbs                   vanilla
1tsp                   salt

For balsamic glaze:
1/2c                  aged balsamic vinegar
1-2 tbs              sugar

Make the Ice Cream
In a medium sized bowl, smash or partially puree blackberries. I keep mine partially chunky, but you can opt to puree and strain if you prefer a smoother, seed-free ice cream. Macerate berries with sugar, which is just me using a fancy, chefy word to explain the process where fruit is broken down, sugar is added, and then naturally those berries further break down to release juices and their natural sugars.

In a medium saucepan over medium heat, warm the whipping cream and half & half. Add vanilla, salt and macerated berries. Simmer on low until flavors meld, about 15 – 20 minutes.

Cool in the refrigerator overnight (best) or in the freezer 1 hour. Follow ice cream maker instructions to finish ice cream. Here are my photos from the Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker. The bowl has to be frozen overnight, then the recipe must be split and made in 2 batches. Simply put, add base and run ice cream maker for about 20 minutes, then freeze for an additional hour. From start to finish on the ice cream:

Ta-Da! Perfect, summery, fresh blackberry ice cream. Now to make the perfect salty topping…

Make the Aged Balsamic Glaze
In a small sauté pan over medium high heat, gently boil the balsamic vinegar until reduced to about half the original liquid remains. Add sugar to taste (careful, it’s sticky and hot). After sugar has dissolved, turn down low and let simmer for approximately 10 minutes.

A tip on thickness of your glaze: the more you reduce and the longer you simmer, the thicker the glaze becomes. However, it will further thicken when cooled. 10 minutes seems about the right amount of simmer time to slightly thicken and then cooling will take care of the rest. Drizzle cooled balsamic glaze on finished ice cream and enjoy, noting all bullet points of the reasons you like this:

1. Because you made it