How excited are you that it’s actually June?!! Or is that just me? Guys, I love this month! It combines two of my great loves—the official start of summer and strawberry season! Sure, you can get them all year round, but there is nothing like the taste of fresh picked berries! So I thought seeing that it’s really, truly June now, we’d start off with a classic summer treat, Strawberry Ice Cream.

I haven’t always been a lover of strawberry ice cream. As a kid, my grandpa always ordered strawberry cones, sundaes and shakes and other than the color, I could never understand the appeal, but now I’m a big fan—especially when it’s homemade!

Ever since I got my ice cream maker about 10 years ago, I’ve made a bunch of different strawberry ice creams and while they’ve been good, I’ve often found that the milk and cream obscured the flavor of the strawberries. That’s why I’ve never posted a simple strawberry ice cream recipe here on the site (though if you’re looking for the most divine strawberry sorbet, I’ve totally got you covered) This one however, that also relies on skim milk, is by far my favorite and happily blog worthy and I’m so excited to finally be able to share a terrific strawberry ice cream recipe with you, just in time for the hot weather!

Every smooth creamy bite is loaded with juicy berry flavor!

And like most of the best things in life, it comes together with a minimum of effort, although you will need to pull out your ice cream maker, but hey, it is the start of ice cream season, right?

And while it works well on it’s own, it’s also makes a fun summer treat to sandwich it between two cookies and of course, cover the whole thing in colored sprinkles! Imagine the joy on people’s faces when you pull these out of the freezer!!

You’re feeling the June vibe now too, right?!!

Strawberry Ice Cream

Makes 1 1/2 quarts

You will need a blender and an ice cream maker for this.

Prep Time: 10 minutes, plus at least 1 hour and up to 6 for strawberries to macerate and the time it takes to make and freeze the ice cream

Ingredients

• 1 pound fresh strawberries, washed, dried, hulled and sliced

• 1 1/2 cups sugar, divided

• 1 1/2 cups whole milk

• 1 1/2 cups skim milk

• 2 cups heavy cream

The Recipe

1. Place the berries and 1/2 cup sugar in a small bowl and stir together. Cover and let sit stirring occasionally, until berries release a lot of their juices.

2. Place all of the other ingredients into a blender, including the remaining cup of sugar and blend until smooth. Pour into a large airtight container, cover and refrigerate overnight or for at least 8 hours. Pour the mixture into your ice cream maker (I had to do this in two batches) and churn according to manufacturer’s directions. Transfer to a freezer-safe container and store in the freezer.

Enjoy!

Note: Recipe adapted from Pull Up A Chair by Tiffani Thiessen. I really didn’t tinker with this much— just cut down on the macerating time and also chilled the blended ice cream batter overnight because I always do that with all my ice cream recipes so that the mixture is as cold as possible.