Concord Grape Ice Cream
Concord Grape Ice Cream! Delicious and creamy homemade ice cream flavored with fragrant Concord grapes. Fresh Concord grapes make an ice cream with a distinctive grapey flavor and a beautiful color.
Why you’ll love this homemade Concord Grape Ice Cream
Concord Grapes have an intense flavor, amazing aroma and striking deep-purple color. There’s a reason that this is the grape used to make the quintessential grape jelly and grape juice. The flavor is so…..grapey.
If you get a big batch of concords, I urge you to make this ice cream. I’m pretty sure you’ll never find a pint of Concord Grape Ice Cream in your local supermarket freezer. This is why I love making my own ice cream. I can create any flavor I want.
The first step in making a great fruit-flavored ice cream is to consider the amount of water in the fruit. Too much water not only dilutes the flavor, excess water creates an icy, crystalized texture.
When you’re making ice cream with very watery fruit, like strawberries, you need to find a way to reduce the amount of water in the fruit to produce a creamy ice cream.
Unlike strawberries, Concord grapes don’t really have an excessive amount of water. Concord grapes have especially thick skins and pulp so they make a fabulous addition to ice cream.
For this ice cream, we just replace the milk in a basic ice cream recipe with concord grape puree.
Ingredients
Ingredient Notes
- Concord Grapes – You can use either seedless or seeded Concord grapes for this recipe. Either way, strain the puree to remove the seeds and large bits of tough skin. Concord grapes can be frozen until you’re ready to make the ice cream or you can puree and strain the grapes and freeze the puree to use at any time.
- Salt – The tiniest bit of salt rounds out the flavor of the ice cream.
- Egg Yolks – Homemade ice cream made with egg yolks has a luscious custardy texture and it melts more slowly than ice cream made without eggs or yolks.
How to make Concord Grape Ice Cream
See the recipe card for detailed measurements and instructions.
- Pulse the grapes in a food processor until most of the skins are broken down.
- Use a fruit strainer or mesh strainer to remove the seeds and large skins from the puree.
- Discard or compost the seeds and skins.
- From 1 pound of grapes you should get about 1 1/2 cups of puree after straining.
- Heat the cream over medium heat.
- Combine the yolks and sugar.
- Whisk the scalding cream into the egg yolks.
- Whisk the chilled grape puree into the custard.
- Cover and chill the custard until it’s very cold.
- Run the custard in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s directions.
- Transfer the ice cream to a freezer container. Place a layer of plastic wrap directly on the surface to prevent icicles from forming on the surface.
- Freeze until solid.
More Concord Grape Recipes:
- Concord Grape Preserves
- Concord Grape Pie
- Concord Grape Sorbet
- PB&J Crumb Bars
- PB&J Sandwich Cookies
More Ice Cream Recipes:
- Raspberry Ice Cream
- Mango Ice Cream
- Rhubarb Ice Cream
- Malted Milk Ice Cream
- Bourbon Ice Cream
- Chai Tea Ice Cream
- Lavender Honey Ice Cream
- White Chocolate Ice Cream with Chocolate Truffles
- Brown Sugar Ice Cream
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Concord Grape Ice Cream Recipe
Ingredients
- 16 oz Concord grapes (weight without stems)
- 16 oz heavy cream (2 cups)
- 5 egg yolks
- 8 oz granulated sugar (1 cup)
- ⅛ teaspoon table salt
Instructions
- In a food processor, puree 16 oz Concord grapes until smooth. Strain the puree through a fine sieve to remove the seeds. You should have about 1½ cups of puree after straining. Refrigerate the puree it while you make the ice cream base.
- Heat 16 oz heavy cream in a small saucepan over medium high heat until scalding hot.
- While the cream heats up, whisk together 5 egg yolks 8 oz granulated sugar and ⅛ teaspoon table salt in a small bowl.
- Once the cream mixture is scalding hot, pour it into the bowl with the yolks and whisk to combine
- Return the entire mixture to the saucepan and heat over medium low heat, stirring constantly. Cook the custard until it thickens enough to coat the back of a spatula or wooden spoon. Do not allow it to come to a full boil. Remove from the heat and pour back into the bowl from the yolks. Add the cold grape puree to the custard and stir to combine.
- Cover the bowl and chill until very cold. At least 4-5 hours or over night.
- Freeze according to the directions for your ice cream machine.
- When the ice cream is ready, scoop it into a container and smooth to an even layer. Lay a piece of plastic wrap directly on the surface of the ice cream, cover tightly and freeze until firm.
Equipment
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