Absolutely, Positively the BEST Raspberry Ripple Ice Cream Ever

And more good news—it requires no tricky techniques. Eliminating eggs makes it possible to skip the usual fussy, time-consuming process of preparing an egg custard base. Armed with only an ice cream maker and the following recipe, you’ll be able to readily create this extraordinary summer pleasure reliably and readily.

Best Ever Raspberry Ripple Ice Cream

Raspberry ripple has always been one of my favorite ice creams, but, frankly, until I came up with this recipe, I’d never made, or even tasted, a version that delivered quite the looks, taste, and texture desired. Here, at last, is what I’ve been striving for, thanks in part to the expertise of ice cream guru, Jeni Britton Bauer. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

I’m sure you could use this ice cream base recipe as a foundation for other totally different ice cream flavors, but I designed it to combine with the special, “freezeable” raspberry sauce. (The sauce can be used as is or for readying sundaes as well. Or if you’re looking for a shortcut raspberry ripple ice cream, stir it into purchased premium vanilla ice cream.)  Here, the two components are mixed together to create the to-die-for raspberry ice cream base, which is then further enhanced with more swirls of raspberry sauce. Oh my!

 If you do experiment with adding other flavors to this ice cream base, I’d love to hear about your results.

Tip: McCormick’s now makes a very pleasant raspberry extract. It’s usually sold right along with the more traditional vanilla, almond and other extracts in the baking aisle, and I use it in many baked goods and desserts.

1 cup granulated sugar
1 1/3 cup heavy (whipping) cream
2 cups whole milk, divided
3 tablespoons light corn syrup
Pinch of salt
1 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 teaspoon raspberry extract (or substitute vanilla extract and 2 pinches of fresh lemon zest)
2 tablespoons cream cheese, softened

 One batch Raspberry Ripple Sauce, prepared ahead and chilled

 In a 4-quart non-reactive saucepan, stir together the sugar, cream, 1 3/4 cups milk, corn syrup, and salt. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Adjust heat so the mixture boils gently and cook, stirring occasionally, for 4 minutes. In a cup, stir the cornstarch into the remaining milk until smoothly incorporated. Stir the mixture into the saucepan and let return to a full boil, stirring. Continue cooking 2 minutes longer or until just thickened slightly, then immediately remove from the heat.  Combine the cream cheese in a small, deep bowl with about 1/4 cup of the base mixture. Whisk until completely smooth and well blended. Thoroughly stir the mixture back into the ice cream base.

 Stir the raspberry (or vanilla) extract and a generous 1/3 cup to 1/2 cup of the raspberry sauce into the ice cream base; reserve the remainder of the sauce for rippling. Pour the mixture through a sieve into a non-reactive storage container. Refrigerate until very cold, at least 4 hours and up to 24 hours, if desired.

Put the ice cream base in an ice cream maker and proceed according to the manufacturer’s directions. When it has finished processing, spoon out about a third of the mixture into a well chilled 1-quart or larger freezer-safe storage container. Add 2 to 3 tablespoons raspberry sauce. Add another third of the ice cream and top with 2 to 3 tablespoons more raspberry sauce; repeat a third time. (Reserve any leftover sauce for simply spooning over vanilla ice cream.) With a table knife held vertically, swirl the mixtures together to create ripples of sauce throughout; for large ripples and streaks mix fairly lightly, for a more blended ice cream, mix more thoroughly. Immediately freeze, airtight, for up to 2 weeks.

Makes a generous 1 quart.

The first pic below shows the raspberry sauce used for sundaes instead of incorporated into ice cream.The second shows my raspberry cobbler posted here.