Strawberry Shortcake Ice Cream

This may be blasphemy to some, but I'm here to confess: I don't like chocolate ice cream. So you won't be finding any here, unless I lose my mind and decide to make it for my kids during the summer. I guess that could happen; I've been accused of being crazy (by them) many times.

However, I am the world's greatest fan of vanilla ice cream. I adore French Vanilla ice cream. I could weigh 400 pounds if there was enough French Vanilla ice cream in my house. (Note to self: don't do it! Restrain yourself!) Anyway, I found this recipe for French Vanilla ice cream, and had a few sorry, store bought, semi flavorless but absolutely beautiful strawberries in the fridge. And so was created this, with, as usual, a way to not have to dirty every pan in the house to make it. Even with plenty of dishwasher space, I'm not a fan of rinsing, loading and unloading pots and pans. So, I use my Pampered Chef 2 quart batter bowl to prepare the liquid which will become ice cream and chill it, then pour it into the ice cream maker bowl, and return it to the Pampered Chef bowl when it's done. Voila! No extra dishes!

STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE ICE CREAM

3 cups heavy cream
1 cup whole milk
3/4 cup sugar
4 egg yolks
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1 cup sliced strawberries*

Measure the milk, and heat it with the sugar in the microwave 1 to 2 minutes, until the sugar dissolves. Whisk some of the hot milk in with the egg yolks, then whisk the egg yolks into the milk. Heat about 3 minutes, whisking every 30 to 45 seconds, until the mixture begins to boil. Remove from the microwave, let it stand 5 minutes, then add the cream and vanilla extract. Chill about an hour, then freeze according to your ice cream maker's directions. When it's about done, scoop strawberry slices in, and let it process one minute more, to incorporate the strawberries, and put it in the freezer for at least 2 hours. If you want to be fancy, serve it over sliced pound cake so it's really strawberry shortcake. As for me, I was lazy, and served it in bowls. Yes, some nights I'm so worn out I'd just as soon hand everyone a scoop of ice cream and wish them all a lot of luck. Note that I cut my strawberries into chunks, and they were too big: they became really hard after sitting in the freezer for a while. You can see that in this picture. Next time (and my dearly beloved swears there WILL be a next time for this one), I'll slice the berries.