Alameda Plum Ice Cream

I'm not a huge fan of ice cream. Especially the kind that can be bought in stores. It's too sweet and has too many additives. Generally I lean towards sorbets when it comes to frozen treats. It does not weigh you down like ice cream. However, homemade ice cream is a treat that should be had every once in a while.

On a rare Alameda day that actually felt like summer (as in, it was pretty hot out) I happened to have heavy cream in the fridge and I felt like making a dessert. I decided to make some ice cream. Only a few months ago, did I even learn that my mom actually owned an ice cream maker. I followed the recipe in Alice Water's "The Art of Simple Food."

As Alice says, "Ice Cream is universally loved -- and homemade ice cream right off the dasher is the most desirable ice cream of all. There are basically two versions. The first is simply sweetened and flavored cream, frozen. The second is a frozen custard made with sweetened cream and egg yolks, which produces a richer, smoother ice cream."

I followed the recipe for the custard style. I did a variation on the recipe, using plums instead of strawberries. These plums were very small, rather tart plums that weren't that great for eating on their own. They were off of someones plum tree here in Alameda, because my mom picked them up off of Stephanie's porch through the Alameda Fruit Exchange.


I pitted the plums and then heated them over the stove with some sugar. After this, I pureed them in the food processor. I then made the custard/cream mixture and let it cool. Once it was cool, I added in the pureed plums. I put the mixture in the ice cream maker and let it work its magic!

The ice cream turned out just right, sweet, but with some natural tartness from the plums, and very creamy. It was delicious. It was a pale peachy orange color with flecks of red. It was so rich that it took a very small amount to completely satisfy.

The final product