No churn blackberry ice cream made right in your food processor ~ this easy method for homemade ice cream is genius (and delicious!)
blackberry ice cream without an ice cream maker
Everybody loves homemade ice cream, but not everybody has or wants an ice cream machine. I get it, it can take up limited kitchen space, especially if you only get the urge for homemade ice cream a couple of times a year.
what you’ll need
- heavy cream
- milk
- sugar
- vanilla
- blackberries ~ the blackberries need to be frozen, so you can freeze fresh berries or buy them already frozen. I vote for freezing fresh summer berries for fabulous results.
the no churn food processor method for making ice cream
I came across this idea here and decided to give it a try. It basically replaces the ice cream machine with the more common kitchen tool, the food processor. Here’s the gist:
- Combine your ice cream mixture as usual: mix cream, milk, sugar, and flavoring together until the sugar dissolves.
- Transfer it to a large heavy duty zip lock baggie.
- Place the baggie flat on a baking sheet and freeze until solid.
- Break up the frozen cream mixture and process in a food processor until smooth.
- Blend in frozen berries until smooth.
- Spread into a pan and freeze until ready to enjoy.
variations on no churn blackberry ice cream
There’s lots of delicious options possible with this basic concept. The most obvious is to change up the fruit. Any berry will work beautifully, and bananas will make an especially creamy ice cream. Try swapping out the cream for a whole milk yogurt, or the sugar for honey. Lots of options!
I’m continually amazed at what the food processor can do. And at the incredible ingenuity of people who love ice cream 🙂 You’ll want to keep your food processor front and center on your counter all season long.
more no churn ice cream ideas!
- No Churn Bailey’s Ice Cream
- No Churn Wild Blueberry Frozen Yogurt
- Ballymaloe No Churn Vanilla Ice Cream
- No Churn Cranberry Ice Cream
- No Churn Pumpkin Spice Ice Cream
Easy No Churn Blackberry Ice Cream
Equipment
- full sized food processor I use this model
Ingredients
- 2 cups heavy cream
- 3/4 cups sugar
- 1 cup milk
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 12 ounces frozen blackberries
Instructions
- Mix the heavy cream and sugar in a saucepan and heat until the sugar dissolves. Take off the heat and add the milk and vanilla. Update: You can skip the stove and just stir the sugar into the cream, it will dissolve more slowly than if you heat it up, but it will dissolve.
- Cool the mixture and then pour it into a gallon sized zip lock bag. You can set the bag in a bowl to make this easier. Close the bag securely and lay it flat on a baking sheet. Put it in the freezer and freeze solid. I left mine overnight.
- Cut open the bag and break up the mixture into pieces. I used a knife to cut off chunks. Put them in a food processor and process until smooth. This will take a couple of minutes. Scrape down the machine and redistribute the chunks a few times to help your machine out.
- When the machine runs freely and the ice cream is smooth,
- Add in the frozen berries. The machine will take a while, but it will eventually get all the berries pureed into the ice cream. Redistribute the berries a few times during the process.
- Scrape the ice cream into a loaf pan and smooth it out. Cover with foil and place back in the freezer until firm enough to scoop.
- Scoop and enjoy (then start dreaming up your next batch!)
Notes
Nutrition
I grow my own blackberries. How does this change the recipe? Or do I have to freeze my fresh berries? I also grow blueberries and strawberries, Will this recipe work with them?
This will work with all berries, and for this particular method, I would freeze your berries, Gil.
Do you let the berries thaw?
No, you use them frozen.
The first 2 times I used evaporated milk instead of regular milk, but it never froze solid, this last time I used regular milk same results….What am I doing wrong?
I imagine you could boil your berries first and strain out the seeds then add the liquid to the cream?
That should work.
Sue,
More thanks. So proud of myself for serving such a flavorful ice cream. As I have a very small food processor, I made half a batch at first. The blackberries took quite a while to incorporate and as I was limited by time and my cream mixture was not rock solid, I was worried about melting. So, with the final batch, I processed the frozen blackberries first. They broke down much faster, and when I put in the cream mixture, it “iced” the cream much faster. I topped the ice cream with ganache – bigger yum!!
What a great recipe! i wanted to try it without blackberry seeds, so I heated up the blackberries until they were soft, de-seeded them with a sieve and then froze them in a freezer bag just like the whipping cream mixture. Turned out amazing! On a side note, I think I will need to get a beefier food processor–my motor started smoking during the blending process 🙁
I like your creative de-seeding method! A good food processor is pretty critical, so maybe this holiday season is an excuse to upgrade 🙂
How many cups of blackberries is this (for those of us using ones we picked)? Thanks!
I’d go with about 2 cups, Jenn.
Made with almond milk for a church social and was a big hit!!! Do you think the recipe would turn out good with red raspberries too?
Absolutely, raspberries would be amazing.
This is absolutely the best ice cream I’ve ever made and everyone I’ve begrudgenly shared with has agreed! I’m on my third batch. The first two were boysenberry and the latest is strawberry. However it’s becoming increasingly hard to not eat all the vanilla while I’m making it, because that is amazing too!
I do have a question that I can’t figure the best solution to: what should/could I add to the vanilla to make choxolate ice cream. I don’t know if cocoa powder would work or frozen chocolate? I’m dying to make Neapolitan for the 4th and that’s my missing piece!
Thank you so much for sharing your recipes!
Hey Becky! I love the sound of boysenberry ice cream, I need to find some 🙂 As for the chocolate, you can use cocoa powder and actual chocolate, (cut in very small pieces) you would melt it into the hot cream, then cool, and then freeze. Let me know how it turns out if you try.
I have not tried this yet, but I often make kiefer (or yogurt) and berry freezes in my vitamix in minutes and serve them to the kids – sometimes I add a little raw protein powder. I have made ice cream with blackberries before and it is amazingly yummy! I have two ice cream makers and I love to whip up the ingredients into my vitamix and then toss it right into the ice cream maker. Turns out smooth and creamy, yet I prefer to take it out of the canister and place in a different container. What is nice is not having to spend time and energy or find free flat space for freezing the cream or half and half, although I have frozen many things in ice cube trays. I do find that already frozen fruit does perform better in these scenarios, even with an ice cream maker. When it is fresh, unfrozen, it does turn out icier and a little crunchy!
I just happen to have a blueberry frozen yogurt coming up next week on the blog that I make this way, with the frozen fruit and yogurt right in my Vitamin ~ it works like magic!