In the last week, my outlook on life has improved, oh, about 1000%, and here’s why: we finally got an air conditioner! It’s such an important event that I feel our time here will forever be divided between the time before and after its arrival.

While it’s transformed just about every aspect of daily life—from being able to sleep through the night to actually feeling clean after a shower to feeling motivated once again to do things other than sit in front of the fan (not conducive to blogging, believe me), most importantly of all, I can now, once again, envision food being made. The cereal diet has been lifted and I will never again underestimate the value of HVAC.

This ice cream is one of the few things I could muster into being during the time B.A.C. (before A/C) and the reason is because it involved absolutely no stove time whatsoever. That’s right. Which makes it my first custard-less ice cream ever. And it’s delicious.

I’d originally been inspired by this awesome-looking strawberry sour cream ice cream that Katie had made awhile back. Except I balked at the number of egg yolks the recipe called for (Nine. Really? Are they really necessary? Does anyone know what the relation is between number of yolks and consistency/taste?). So after a quick web search, I found another recipe for sour cream ice cream that involved zero yolks, and little much of anything else. It was the simplest recipe ever: mix the ingredients, refrigerate, churn. Easy. Clean up consisted of one bowl and one immersion blender (as well as the usual assortment of measuring implements, but they don’t count).

The ice cream came out with just the right amount of tang, sort of similar to the plain-flavored fro-yo that’s so popular these days, but much creamier and smoother, like Cheesecake Lite. I also love how the blueberry sauce came out, streaks and pockets and bursts of lovely violet that taste delicately sweet against the sharpness of the sour cream.

I am a huge fan. And though I’m back in action in the kitchen, this is one easy recipe that I’ll be coming back to again and again.

One year ago: Apricot raspberry galette

BLUEBERRY SOUR CREAM ICE CREAM

Adapted from Gourmet
Makes about a quart

Ingredients:

For the blueberry sauce:

1-1/2 cups blueberries
3/4 cup sugar

For the ice cream:

1 16-ounce container chilled sour cream
1 cup chilled whole milk
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup chilled heavy cream
2 teaspoons fresh lime juice
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
pinch salt

Directions:

For the blueberry sauce:

Put the blueberries and sugar in a small saucepan, stir to mix, and bring to a boil over medium heat. Reduce heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the berries are very tender and the sauce is slightly thickened, about 8 minutes. Remove from the heat, and let cool. Refrigerate until cold before using.

For the ice cream:

Blend all the ingredients until mixture is smooth and sugar has dissolved. Chill until very cold, overnight if possible. Freeze mixture in ice cream maker. Transfer to an airtight container, drizzling in the blueberry sauce intermittently. Place in freezer until firm.