Raspberry Ripple Stracciatella Ice Cream

Raspberry ripple stracciatella is a next level ice cream flavour! Super creamy, packed full of dark chocolate shards & rippled with a punchy raspberry sauce.

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Raspberry ripple is such a classic flavour & I love making stracciatella ice cream so combining the two just made sense!

Here, I’ve taken my vanilla ice cream recipe, packed it full of dark chocolate shards & rippled through a homemade raspberry sauce. A next level ice cream flavour that’s the best of both worlds!

I bought an ice cream machine earlier this year & have been churning out batches of homemade ice cream ever since. I’m always looking for new flavours to try, so if you’ve got any suggestions, I’d love to hear them in the comments below!

What Is Stracciatella?

Stracciatella is the name for the chocolate that is mixed through the ice cream at the end of the churning process. When the warm melted chocolate is drizzled into the ice cream, the cold temperature instantly freezes it, creating thin shards & flecks. If you’re new to the blog, I also have a recipe for hazelnut stracciatella that also uses this technique.

How To Make A Raspberry Ripple

To make raspberry ripple, we need to make a thick syrup/sauce out of frozen raspberries. To do this, raspberries are cooked with a splash of lemon juice until soft then sugar & a pinch of salt is stirred in. Once the sugar has dissolved, the fruit is boiled until reduced by half then the sauce is strained, to remove the seeds.

We’re taking our raspberries to a temperature of 104°c/219°f, which makes a sauce that is thick but stays soft when frozen. Ideal for a ripple!

The sauce needs to be as cold as possible when it is swirled into the ice cream, so we chill it overnight.

To ripple the sauce through the ice cream, we add spoonful of churned ice cream into a tub then pipe a small amount of sauce on top. We then use a skewer or the end of a spoon to ripple the raspberry through the ice cream. This process is then repeated until all of the sauce & ice cream has been used.

Ingredients Used

Raspberries

We’re using frozen raspberries for our sauce as they are available year round & are much cheaper than fresh. They’re still as good though! If you’d prefer to use a different fruit, strawberries, blackberries or cherries would work well.

Dark Chocolate

Traditionally dark chocolate is used in stracciatella so that’s what we’re using. The chocolate needs to be slightly warm when it is added to the ice cream so that it doesn’t affect the churn. When the chocolate hits the ice cream, it will freeze almost instantly. This is what creates the shards of chocolate in stracciatella.

Vanilla

High quality vanilla can be pricey but a small amount goes a long way! For our ice cream, half a pod or 2 tsp of paste can is used.

Milk & Cream

We’re using whole milk & double/heavy cream for this recipe as they contain the most fat. In ice cream, the right amount of fat will give us a smoother texture & a rich flavour. It will also make the ice cream easier to scoop.

Sugar

Caster sugar & glucose syrup are used for this batch of ice cream. Both of these add sweetness & the glucose helps prevent ice crystals forming. This in turn. makes the ice cream smooth & creamy.

Milk Powder

Without getting into the science too much, milk powder absorbs water & helps emulsify the ice cream which in turn, adds creaminess. Using the right amount is crucial as too much milk powder will turn the ice cream gritty. I use Nestle’s whole milk powder.

Egg Yolks

Like pretty much all of my ice cream recipes, we’re making an egg custard for our base as I find that this makes smoother ice creams that are easy to scoop. Using just the yolks adds a good amount of fat, which gives our ice cream a rich flavour.

Salt

With most foods, a pinch of salt will help improve flavour. This ice cream is the same, so we’re adding a small amount of sea salt into both the custard & raspberry sauce.

How To Make Raspberry Ripple Stracciatella

Step 1 – Custard Base

The first step is making the egg custard for our ice cream base. To do this, we place whole milk, double cream, sugar, glucose, milk powder, vanilla & sea salt into a medium saucepan. This is then placed over a low heat to get warm. Make sure not to let it boil!

Whilst the milk is heating up, we whisk egg yolks & sugar in a stand mixer until they are light & fluffy. This will take 4-5 minutes on a medium speed.

Once the milk & cream is steaming, we whisk a third of it into the yolks, to temper. This mix is then poured back into the remaining cream & it is cooked gently until it reaches a temperature of 82°c/180°f. At this point the egg will be cooked & the custard can be removed from the heat.

We then pass the custard into a bowl, through a sieve then leave to cool. This is then chilled in the fridge overnight. This helps develop flavours & means that the custard will be cold when it goes into churn, reducing the amount of time in the machine.

Step 2 – Raspberry Ripple Prep

For our raspberry ripple, we need to make a thick syrup/sauce using frozen raspberries.

This is made like a jam. To make, place raspberries & lemon juice into a saucepan then cook over a low heat until soft & starting to break down. We then add in sugar & a pinch of salt & cook gently to dissolve.

At this point, we increase the heat to medium-high & boil the fruit until it reaches a temperature of 104°c/219°f (a digital food probe comes in handy here!). It is important not to stir the fruit too much as it boils because this will bring the temperature down. An occasional (careful!) stir is best, to stop the sauce from burning as it cooks.

The cooked sauce is then passed through a sieve, to remove the seeds then it is chilled in the fridge overnight. The raspberry sauce needs to be as cold as possible when it is swirled through the ice cream which is why we make it the day before churning.

Step 3 – Churning

To turn the ice cream into stracciatella, we first need to churn it to the consistency of soft scoop. If you were to check the temperature with a digital food probe, it will be around -5°c/23°f. In most ice cream machines, this will take around half an hour.

15 minutes (or halfway) into the churn time, we need to heat the chocolate until just melted. This can be done in a microwave or over a bain marie. This is then transferred into a piping bag & set aside until required.

Step 4 – Stracciatella

Now the fun part. With the ice cream machine still churning, slowly pipe a thin stream of melted chocolate directly into the ice cream. As the chocolate hits the ice cream, it will freeze, turning into thin shards. Once all the chocolate has been used up, keep churning for 30 seconds.

Step 5 – Raspberry Ripple

To create the raspberry ripple, we first need to transfer the sauce into a piping bag. We then pipe a generous amount into the bottom & around the sides of our tub.

Next, we add in a spoonful of the churned ice cream then pipe some sauce on top. We then use a skewer or the end of a spoon to swirl the raspberry through the ice cream.

This process is then repeated until all of our ice cream & raspberry sauce is used up.

Step 6 – Freezing

The final step is setting the ice cream in the freezer, which will take at least 4 hours. A freezer temperature of -18°c/-1°f is ideal.

Homemade Ice Cream Tips & Tricks

• Chill your custard overnight for a better flavour & texture.
• Dip your scoop in hot water for easier scooping!
• Set your freezer to 18°c/-1°f for the best set.

Frequently Asked Questions

Equipment Used

Please note that these are affiliate links & I may make a small commission if you make a purchase using these links, at no extra cost to you. For more information, click here.

Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker Review

• Ice Cream Machine
• Digital Food Probe
• The Ice Cream Tubs That I Use
• Stand Mixer
• Ice Cream Scoop

More Dessert Recipes

• Vanilla Ice Cream
• Hazelnut Stracciatella
• French Toast Ice Cream
• Rhubarb Frangipane Ice Cream
• Lemon Drizzle Bakewell Tart
• Small Batch Sticky Toffee Pudding
• Brown Butter & Miso Treacle Tart
• Apple & Blackberry Bread & Butter Pudding

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