Marionberry {blackberry and raspberry, too!} pie à la mode is one of my favorite desserts at all times of the year. The last two summers I have enjoyed combining them into one: marionberry pie ice cream. One sweet bite of this beautifully-colored ice cream will transport you to berry patches and long, relaxing summer days. It is a refreshing treat in the heat of summer and the perfect pick-me-up on a gray winter day.
You can use your berry pie of choice. I used my French Vanilla Ice Cream as the base and then gently stirred in mashed up pieces of pie at the end to get the swirled effect. A little pie goes a long way in a batch of ice cream so you only need to spare a couple of slices of your pie to make this dessert. I made my Wild Blackberry Pie with marionberries for this ice cream. If you don’t have time to make a pie, you can also simply stir in the berries for a Marionberry Swirl Ice Cream.
Blackberries and raspberries have always been my favorite berries for pies, jams and muffins but not until I moved to Oregon as an adult did I come to appreciate the marionberry. As a child I never paid attention to the “Entering Marion County” sign on I-5 that we passed by countless times; I never put it together that the marionberry was invented here in Oregon {in fact, in conjunction with OSU}. It has quickly become one of my favorites and we are sure to find berry farms with an assortment of varieties to last us until the following summer.
- 3 eggs
- 2 cups milk (or half and half)
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 cups heavy cream
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- Marionberry (or blackberry) pie, to taste
- In a large saucepan, beat the eggs, milk and sugar until well blended.
- Cook the egg mixture over low heat for roughly 10 minutes, stirring constantly, until thickened. It should smoothly coat the back of a wooden spoon.
- Let the mixture cool.
- Add the heavy cream and the vanilla.
- Stir until blended and refrigerate the mixture until it is completely chilled, for several hours or up to overnight.
- Following the instructions of your ice cream maker, pour the chilled mixture into your machine and stir it until the ice cream forms.
- As the ice cream forms, stir in some marionberry (or blackberry) pie to taste by hand.
- It will typically be more like soft-serve when you first make it. If you want firmer ice cream, transfer it to a sealed container once it reaches the soft-serve consistency and let it freeze for several hours until it hardens.
- Recipe makes 1 quart of ice cream.