I’m partnering with Red Blossom to bring you today’s recipe! I’m obsessed with their fresh strawberries — they’re the sweetest and juiciest ones I’ve ever tasted! They’re perfect for both snacking and baking!
Almost every 4th of July throughout my childhood (and some Memorial Days and Labor Days too!), my parents pulled out our trusty old ice cream maker. It consisted of a large cylindrical metal tub with a handle fixed to its lid situated inside of a wooden bucket, and there was just enough space around its sides to pour in ice chunks and generously shower them with rock salt.
We usually prepared the same simple recipe that we found in an ice cream cookbook, an eggless vanilla base with plenty of heavy cream and sugar, because it was so quick to throw together. No eggs meant no cooking on the stove… We just added everything to a bowl and whisked!
After pouring it into the metal cylinder, we headed into the backyard and positioned the wooden bucket next to an outdoor drain so the salt water from the melted ice wouldn’t kill any plants. We placed a little stool next to the bucket to sit on, and then we each took turns spinning the handle, periodically adding more ice and rock salt when the levels started to drop beneath the cylinder’s top rim.
As it grew progressively harder and harder to crank, Dad jumped in for one final turn. When he deemed it done, he quickly pulled the metal cylinder out of the wooden bucket, placed it on a rimmed baking sheet, and carried it inside to start scooping the ice cream into bowls.
With the consistency of soft-serve and a flavor richer than anything we ever found in grocery stores’ freezer aisles, we quickly devoured every single drop of ice cream from our bowls… And sometimes every last spoonful from the cylinder too. Even though the recipe was meant to serve 8-12 people, it never tasted quite as good the next day, so we reasoned it would just be better to eat it all that evening!
One year, we tried getting a little fancy and added sliced fresh strawberries to the cream mixture before hand-cranking our ice cream, thinking maybe it would result in a deliciously sweet and creamy strawberry flavor. However, half an hour later when we tried our first spoonfuls…
We realized that wasn’t the brightest idea. The fruit bits were hard and icy, and it felt just like we were eating sliced strawberries straight from the freezer. Oops!
So since then, we’ve either topped our bowls of ice cream with fresh berries…
Or I’ve baked a fun berry-filled treat to serve alongside our vanilla ice cream, like these Healthy Strawberry Crumble Bars! They have a soft sugar cookie base as the “crust,” a juicy strawberry filling, and spiced oat streusel on top. Quite a delicious mouthful!
Even better? These healthy strawberry crumble bars contain no eggs, dairy, refined flour or sugar… And they’re 79 calories!
Continue reading & see the rest! ›› Healthy Strawberry Crumble Bars {Eggless & Dairy-Free!}
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