I hope you’ll indulge me with one more homemade ice cream recipe this summer—this one made with huckleberries picked from the mountains of Idaho.
We just returned from a week at my family’s cabin in McCall, a small lakeside town north of Boise. It’s a long-standing summer tradition I look forward to all year. We swam, built sandcastles, lounged in the sun, roasted marshmallows, watched sunsets over the lake, and played card games late into the night.
I took a full week off from the internet and my blog—no email, no social media—and it was wonderful. Now I’m back, refreshed and excited to share a recipe I put together in our tiny, rustic cabin kitchen. It began as a simple idea: bring an ice cream maker to Idaho and turn the day’s berry harvest into dessert.
We’ve been lucky two summers in a row to have our visit overlap with the short huckleberry season (see last year’s huckleberry buckle recipe for another way to enjoy them). We didn’t have to go far to find berries, and with everyone helping, we picked far more than we could eat during our visit.
I hadn’t planned to share this ice cream recipe at first, but the flavor and color were so stunning I couldn’t resist. Homemade ice cream made with berries picked that same morning is hard to beat: smooth, creamy, and bright with fresh huckleberry flavor.
Huckleberries are a smaller, tarter, and less common cousin of the blueberry. If huckleberries are hard to find where you live—as they are for most people outside the Northwest—fresh or frozen blueberries are a perfectly good substitute.
Huckleberry Ice Cream
Ingredients
Huckleberry compote:
- 2 cups huckleberries , fresh or frozen (340 grams)
- ⅓ cup granulated sugar (66 grams)
Ice cream:
- 2 cups heavy whipping cream (475 ml)
- 1 cup whole milk (237 ml)
- ⅔ cup granulated sugar (132 grams)
- Pinch of salt
- 3 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup fresh huckleberries (170 grams)
Instructions
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To make the huckleberry compote, combine the huckleberries and sugar in a small saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a boil while stirring so the sugar dissolves and the berries burst. Simmer, stirring frequently, until reduced and thickened, about 15–20 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool completely.
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For the ice cream base, heat 1 cup of the heavy cream, the milk, the sugar, and salt in a medium saucepan over medium heat until steaming. In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs. Gradually add the hot milk mixture to the eggs in a slow, steady stream while whisking continuously to temper the eggs.
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Return the combined mixture to the saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until it thickens and coats the back of a spoon, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in the remaining 1 cup heavy whipping cream and the vanilla extract. Chill the custard completely in the refrigerator, then fold in the cooled huckleberry compote.
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Churn the mixture in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions, adding the 1 cup of fresh huckleberries during the last 5 minutes of churning. Transfer the churned ice cream to a container and freeze until firm, about 2–3 hours.