Homemade Black Berry Ice Cream

1 1/4 cup cream

1 1/4 cup whole milk

1 cup sugar, divided

6 egg yolks

1 tsp vanilla

3 cups fresh blackberries

Warm cream, whole milk and 1/4 cup sugar on the stove until steaming, but not simmering. Whisk egg yolks and 1/4 cup sugar on a separate bowl. Temper the egg yolks by whisking in 1 cup of the cream mixture into the eggs, then add all the eggs to the cream in the pan. Whisk until the mixture is almost to a simmer, about 180 degrees. Strain through a fine mesh strainer (optional) and cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2 hours.

Wash the blackberries and then heat on the stove with 1/2 cup sugar until the berries release their juices about 5 minutes. Strain through a fine mesh strainer and discard pulp. You should have about 1 cup of berry juice. Add to the custard mixture with vanilla and a pinch of salt.

Follow the directions on your ice cream maker. For harder ice cream, America's Test Kitchen suggests freezing for 3 more hours, but who can wait that long? This is really delicious and I used 2 cups cream and 1/2 cup 2% milk because I didn't have whole milk. It worked and was eaten up without complaint. :)