Homemade Teaberry Ice Cream

My entire adult life I have been looking for that ice cream. Time after time I would order teaberry ice cream when I saw it on the menu, and time after time I would be disappointed. The ice cream was always colored a fake pink, and the taste was always disappointing.

Teaberry, also known as wintergreen, is super abundant on the mountain where our family cottage is located. Several years ago, I had a revelation. I could make my own wintergreen extract and then make my own homemade teaberry ice cream.

Guys. This was the ice cream for which I searched for 40 some years!

Making Homemade Teaberry Ice Cream

As my experience with trying to find good teaberry ice cream illustrates, ice cream will only be as good as its ingredients. I prefer using raw cream and milk from a good source. This way, my ice cream contains enzymes which help me to digest it. But, yes, the recipe will work with pasteurized dairy.

To be sure the taste of the teaberry extract comes through, white sugar is best. While I love using coconut sugar, honey, and maple sugar in recipes, each of these have a strong taste which will overpower the teaberry flavor. Buy organic cane sugar – if it’s not organic, it is genetically modified.

A good tip to keep homemade ice cream from freezing rock solid is to add some vodka to the recipe. You won’t need to do that here, since you are using several tablespoons of the extract, which already contains vodka.

The secret to this recipe is making your own teaberry extract. I know what you’re thinking. You want to make homemade teaberry ice cream, but you don’t want to go through the bother or the wait of making wintergreen (teaberry) extract.

The reason that none of the ice cream I found tasted right to me was that it is virtually impossible to find teaberry extract commercially that does not contain at least some artificial ingredients. That’s why the label almost always says ‘Teaberry Flavor’, or ‘Teaberry Extract Flavor’. Those that do use all natural flavors are not all wintergreen but add other flavors to the mix.

To make ice cream, you’ll need an ice cream maker, of course. This is the ice cream maker I use. There are more expensive models on the market, but this works well.

My best buddy waiting for the ice cream to finish churning.

Homemade Teaberry Ice Cream

Print recipe

Ingredients

• 4 cups heavy cream or 2 cups heavy cream and 2 cups whole milk (preferably raw)
• 1/2 cup organic cane sugar
• pinch sea salt
• 4 tablespoons wintergreen (teaberry) extract

Note

Learn to make your own wintergreen (teaberry) extract here.

Directions

1.	Make sure that your cream and milk, if using, are very cold.
2.	Mix all ingredients together.
3.	Stir thoroughly, until the sugar is dissolved. Work quickly so that the cream mixture remains cold.
4.	Pour into an ice cream maker, and churn according to manufacturer's instructions for 20 - 25 minutes.

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