Top-rated food blogger Renée Kohlman's All the Sweet Things is a gorgeous celebration of dessert with traditional tastes and unexpected twists on the familiar. This recipe for Strawberry Balsamic Ice Cream is incredible, and will never be as delicious as it is right now with strawberries plump, ripe and abundant. Enjoy! 

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I have stacks of cookbooks all around my house. Most of these books are too beautiful to be stuffed away into a cupboard. Now and then I’ll cozy up with one of them to read while sipping tea on a lazy afternoon, or when I'm nestled in bed—you know, to encourage sweet dreams. Nigel Slater’s Ripe is one of my favourite go-to books for such times, as much for the photographs as the writing. Devoted to all things fruit, this book is an education and an inspiration. From that inspiration, I came up with this recipe on a sweltering July day when I had a mountain of strawberries practically bursting with ripeness.

There’s no need for an ice cream maker here; all you need is a food processor, a mixer and a handful of ingredients. The result? A fresh, creamy taste, with deep strawberry flavour and just a murmur of balsamic. Simple. Sensational.

Makes about 4 cups

3 3/4 cups fresh, ripe strawberries, rinsed

1/2 cup superfine sugar

2 tsp balsamic vinegar

1 1/4 cups whipping cream

1/2 cup finely chopped pistachios, for garnish

Hull and thinly slice the strawberries. Put them in a medium bowl and sprinkle with the sugar. Let them rest, uncovered, for 1 hour at room temperature.

Scrape the strawberries and all of the juices into the bowl of a food processor fitted with the steel blade and process until smooth. Pour this purée into a large bowl and stir in the balsamic vinegar. In a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, whip the cream into soft peaks. Gently stir the whipped cream into the strawberry purée, leaving chunks of white showing. Pour the ice cream into a freezer-safe 6- or 8-cup container, preferably one with a lid, and freeze for 3–4 hours, stirring every hour and bringing the outside edges into the centre. If you don’t have a freezer-safe container with a lid, a 9×5×3-inch glass loaf pan will do fine. Just cover the ice cream tightly with plastic wrap.

Remove the ice cream from the freezer about 20 minutes before you want to serve it. It will keep well in the freezer in an airtight container for up to 4 days, though it’s best enjoyed the day it’s made.

Notes

I like to use local strawberries for this ice cream.

To make your own superfine sugar, simply grind granulated white sugar in the bowl of a food processor or blender to make the crystals smaller. A mortar and pestle will do the trick, too.

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About All the Sweet Things:

All the Sweet Things is full of delectable desserts and wholesome baked goods with recipes for muffins, cookies, cakes, pies, custards, pastries, truffles, and ice cream. Reinvent last night's dessert for this morning's breakfast, whip up your very first pie, and wow your colleagues, friends, and family during the holidays by gifting them with impressive baked goods. With wit and warmth doled out in equal measure, Renée acknowledges that baking can be intimidating, but assures you that whether you're a beginner baker or a seasoned pro, each recipe is doable and delicious.

Offering a list of pantry essentials and useful tools and equipment, a photograph to accompany every recipe, variations for gluten-free bakers, and essays written in Kohlman's signature style, this gorgeous new cookbook will pull you into the kitchen to bake, then back to the couch to curl up and read.