Blackberry Ice Cream

I have had an attachment for my kitchenaid to make ice cream for quite a few years. I'd only used it once, and that was a disaster. I've been determined since to try again but it has taken me FOREVER to finally get to it! The other day I got an idea to try out some blackberry ice cream for my husband (blackberries are his favorite). I got this recipe from Food Network and it was great!

We have a couple blackberry bushes in our garden, but they aren't going to be good to harvest this year. I can't wait until we have our own blackberries to make this ice cream whenever we want!

2 cups blackberries
1 & 1/4 cups sugar
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1 & 1/2 cups half and half
5 egg yolks
1 & 1/2 cups heavy cream
4 oz semisweet chocolate, chopped

• Combine blackberries, 1/4 cup sugar, and lemon juice in small sauce pan over medium heat. Cook until berries are broken down and syrupy.
• Pour mixture into bowl through fine mesh strainer or use cheese cloth (if you use cloth you'll need to let the berries cool enough to handle first). Squeeze/force out as much of the liquid as you can and discard the remaining seeds and pulp.
• Heat the half and half and remaining sugar in a small sauce pan over medium heat.
• Beat the egg yolks until pale and thick. 
• Pour a small amount of the cream into the yolks and whisk quickly.
• Pour the yolks into the sauce pan with the remaining cream and heat, stirring gently, until thick.
• Add the heavy cream then yolk mixture to the berries, stir until combined completely.
• Refrigerate mixture until cool.
• Freeze in ice cream maker according to maker's manufacturer instructions.
• When almost completely frozen, stir in chocolate.
• Transfer to freezer-safe container and freeze until hard.