Jacki’s Strawberry Jam and Vanilla Ice Cream

I made both the jam and the ice cream yesterday and that kept me busy!  As Tarin mentioned, I felt like quite the homemaker although she did more work than I did.  After a suggestion from Leslee I decided to forgo the canning part (since I got rid of all my canning supplies many moves ago) and just cut the jam recipe in 1/4 and made enough to partially fill a quart jar.  We are not big jam eaters around here so that should do us just fine for a bit.  I liked Tarin’s idea of making homemade bread to go along with it so I did that as well – very tasty.  I followed the jam recipe until the water bath part.  I left the berries pretty chunky because I like it that way.  I was eyeballing the pectin when I added so I think I added a bit much but it tasted really good and wasn’t too solid or gummy.  Success!
The Vanilla Bean Ice Cream was a lot of work but I have to admit it was really good.  Again, I was glad to have Tarin’s review to refer to and I cut the recipe down by 1/4 so it would fit into my ice cream freezer – so glad I did.  It took a long time to heat the mixture up to a simmer but I didn’t want it to burn.  I actually bought a vanilla bean because I have always wondered about using those (trivia – they come from an orchid).  I cut it open and scraped it like the recipe said to and then threw the whole bean in.  I think I could have used 2 beans even – flavor was really good.  I didn’t have a fine mesh strainer so I tried a dish towel but that was too thick so I just dumped it through my regular strainer and that caught enough stuff.  After freezing it in my ice cream maker I put it in a container in the freezer and checked it after 4 hours – it was harder but still a little soft.  I checked it again this morning after 14 hours and it was much more solid.  Very smooth texture – reminds me of frozen custard.

Strawberry Jam

Vanilla Bean Ice Cream – look closely and you can see the brown flecks from the vanilla bean.