Strawberry shortcake ice cream a magical treat

This week we dive into the second in our summer series — ice cream!

Cool ice cream dripping down the side of a cone is one of summer’s purest pleasures. It’s a tiny bit more magical if that ice cream is homemade.

Here, vanilla ice cream is layered with crunchy shortbread cookies and quickly cooked strawberries as a nod to the iconic early June dessert, strawberry shortcake.

Ice cream made at home isn’t complicated, although for this recipe a home ice cream maker is necessary. (There are several no-churn recipes online if you don’t have a machine — most use condensed milk for texture.)

If you’re looking for a machine, you can find them for between $40 and $50. The Cuisinart model with a bowl you freeze is fairly inexpensive, very simple to use and turns out a great product. Its drawbacks are that it only makes 1 to 1 1⁄2 quarts at a time, and the bowl must be re-frozen between batches.

You can get an old-school electric churn that uses rock salt on the outside. These are usually cheaper, but more of a hassle to use.

For the ice cream aficionado not on a budget, there are several at-home ice cream machine models that have a compressor, so you don’t have to freeze a bowl and can make unlimited batches in a day. These types of machines typically run $200-plus.

There are lots of basic ice cream and custard recipes out there, and I’ve made plenty. My favorite, hands down, is from Jeni Britton Bauer, who runs an artisan ice cream empire out of Columbus, Ohio. She has 34 scoop shops across the country and “Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams” can be found in grocery store shelves everywhere, including the Milwaukee area.

Britton Bauer’s recipe is the best I’ve found for making perfect, scoopable, creamy and non-icy ice cream in your own kitchen. She uses a few tricks like cornstarch, cream cheese and touch of corn syrup to keep everything smooth. Her cookbook, “Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams at Home” (Artisan, 2011) explains the science behind these additions.

For an all-American summer, make this strawberry shortcake ice cream for a barbecue, birthday party, your kids or just yourself.

ANNA THOMAS BATES Homemade vanilla ice cream, chunky fresh strawberry sauce and crumbled shortbread cookies add up to a truly special summer dessert. The base of this ice cream recipe hails from “Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams at Home” (Artisan 2011). It’s layered with...