I have to admit, I had never heard of crème fraîche until a few years ago when I saw a cheftestant using it on Top Chef. Crème what? I immediately looked it up online, using my number-one, trustworthy, foolproof, no-way-this-can-be-wrong source, wikipedia, and found it described as sour cream, but less sour, and thicker, with 28 percent milk fat. Yes, please.
Today you can buy crème fraîche (pronounced krem fresh) in most supermarkets. You can also make your own, if you are an ambitious person looking for extra credit. Not me. I buy mine at Trader Joe's.
This ice cream is the last of my blueberries from Butler's Orchard. It's my capstone blueberry project, so to speak. I've made, and eaten, blueberry pie, blueberry margaritas, and honest blueberry jam. All for $15.34. That's how much it cost me to pick 7 pounds of blueberries. FIFTEEN DOLLARS. Get out there and PICK SOME.
Back to the ice cream. By using crème fraîche instead of regular cream you get a sweet, tangy, and deeply creamy ice cream. Plus, look at the color produced by the blueberries. If I owned an ice cream store, I'd call this flavor Deep Purple. It's easy to make, and includes just three ingredients: blueberries, crème fraîche, and sugar. Add some love from your ice cream maker or some honest labor, a little bit of time, and a regular old freezer and you have some of the tastiest ice cream you'll ever have.
Blueberry and Crème Fraîche Ice Cream
Ingredients
8 ounces crème fraîche
3 cups fresh blueberries
1/2 cup sugar (you could increase this a bit if you are a sweet freak or if your blueberries are not as sweet)
Directions
1. Clean blueberries and place in a stainless steel pan over medium heat.
2. Add sugar.
3. Bring to rolling boil, stirring constantly, and then bring heat down to low.
4. Cook on low for five minutes or until blueberries are mostly liquid (there will be some remaining chunks of blueberries).
5. Remove from heat, pour mixture into a bowl and place in fridge until cool (about 1 hour).
6. Remove blueberry mixture from fridge, mix in crème fraîche.
7. Pour blueberry crème fraîche mixture into ice cream maker, following machine instructions. If you don't have an ice cream maker (I borrowed my friend Anne's) then follow David Lebovitz's instructions for making ice cream without a machine.
Serves four
