a la mode?

October 6, 2012 10:53 AM

What flavor ice cream is best with Blackberry Pie?

I had blueberry pie with cinnamon ice cream once, and it was spectacular. I'm making a blackberry pie soon for a special occasion and need help figuring out what flavor of ice cream to make to go with it.

I use Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home most of the time I make ice cream - I like her base recipe quite a bit and have had good results.

Plain vanilla is always an option, and I have good vanilla beans. But I'd like to come up with something a little more surprising - something that will contrast nicely with the blackberry pie while complementing it (if that makes sense at all)

posted by hilaryjade to Food & Drink (36 answers total)

I'd do plain vanilla with a ginger simple syrup.

But can you do a vanilla-ginger ice cream? That would be delicious.
posted by vitabellosi at 10:55 AM on October 6, 2012 [3 favorites]

Honestly all you have to have is ice cream alongside homemade blackberry pie in my opinion and it doesn't matter much what kind. But, if I had to pick one it'd be Black Pepper Ricotta Ice Cream.
posted by carsonb at 10:57 AM on October 6, 2012 [1 favorite]

Ginger was my first thought as well.
posted by Lorin at 10:57 AM on October 6, 2012 [1 favorite]

I make a delicious blackberry gin (recipe: put lots of blackberries in gin, wait some months, strain blackberries out of gin). I wonder if you could use some of the traditional aromatics from gin as a flavouring? Juniper vanilla?
posted by looli at 10:58 AM on October 6, 2012

Vanilla!

Or vanilla with a flavor that goes with blackberries- maybe rose? Or lavender?
posted by small_ruminant at 11:03 AM on October 6, 2012 [1 favorite]

Ginger or Dulce de Leche sound delicious.
posted by shesaysgo at 11:06 AM on October 6, 2012

I'm with Alton Brown on this one:

Imagine a flower: A climbing orchid, to be exact; the one of some twenty thousand varieties that produces something edible. Now imagine that its blooms must be pollinated either by hand or a small variety of Mexican bee, and that each bloom only opens for one day a year. Now imagine the fruit of this orchid, a pod, being picked and cured, sitting in the sun all day, sweating under blankets all night for months until, shrunken and shriveled, it develops a heady, exotic perfume and flavor. Now imagine that this fruit’s name is synonymous with dull, boring, and ordinary. How vanilla got this bad rap I for one will never know.

Quality vanilla ice cream on blackberry pie is great.
posted by jenkinsEar at 11:09 AM on October 6, 2012 [19 favorites]

Sweet corn ice cream should go well. In fact, I think Jenni's does a sweet corn and blackberry ice cream.
posted by amarynth at 11:11 AM on October 6, 2012

Vanilla. Good vanilla.
posted by holgate at 11:13 AM on October 6, 2012 [2 favorites]

Gingersnap or vanilla. Creme fraiche could be delicious too.
posted by barnone at 11:23 AM on October 6, 2012

I think the coldness of the ice cream numbs the tongue and mutes the flavor of the berries, and the melted ice cream makes the pie crust soggy, too.

I'd go with whipped cream... vanilla whipped cream.
posted by jamjam at 11:33 AM on October 6, 2012

blackberry icecream with blackberry pie could be fun. in the pie you would use whole berries, in the icecream you would use puree for a smooth and contrasting berry texture.
posted by saraindc at 11:36 AM on October 6, 2012

The star of the desert is the blackberry pie, so I would go with a good quality, simple vanilla ice cream.
posted by Thorzdad at 11:37 AM on October 6, 2012

Anything with a bit of pie-type spice (cinnamon, ginger, maybe even nutmeg, allspice, cloves, or cardamom) would be awesome.

You can achieve this yourself by mixing spices into softened vanilla ice cream with a hand mixer. I've done it before with cinnamon and the results are awesome.
posted by phunniemee at 11:42 AM on October 6, 2012

1. Add a little bourbon or calvados to a good vanilla base, and add a little cinnamon.
2. Invite me over!
posted by mochapickle at 11:42 AM on October 6, 2012 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Vanilla with a hint cardamom is spectacular.
posted by cooker girl at 12:10 PM on October 6, 2012 [3 favorites]

Cheese! Whisk in a couple of ounces of room temperature goat cheese or the like into your base while its warm but after you've taken it off the heat. Cheese and fruit is a classic combo and the extra tartness of the goat cheese will play well with the berries.
posted by iloveit at 12:12 PM on October 6, 2012 [2 favorites]

Pies should be eaten with vanilla.
posted by nathancaswell at 12:45 PM on October 6, 2012

Or buttermilk ice cream.
posted by nathancaswell at 12:45 PM on October 6, 2012

Response by poster: Oh my god. I love you people. Ginger is a very exciting idea, but so is goat cheese. So is vanilla with cardamom - I love love cardamom.

And buttermilk. What an awesome idea that is....

Hmmmm.

I have 4 weeks till said special occasion. That should give me some time to experiment a little.
posted by hilaryjade at 1:09 PM on October 6, 2012

I see no one else has suggested honey yet. Use a local honey derived from fruit blossoms.
posted by kindall at 1:13 PM on October 6, 2012

Honey ice cream is pretty yummy itself.

But ... vanilla.
posted by small_ruminant at 1:20 PM on October 6, 2012

How about combining two of the ideas above and making a ginger-cardamom ice cream? I've made it using a custard base with bits of crystallized ginger, and it was pretty mind-blowing. I think it would complement the blackberries but add a little pop as well.
posted by constellations at 2:34 PM on October 6, 2012 [1 favorite]

Not so long ago, the idea of a frozen, creamy, cardamom and vanilla flavored sweet would have been only enjoyed by sultans and kings on the most special of occasions.
posted by Mizu at 3:40 PM on October 6, 2012 [1 favorite]

vanilla!!
posted by wandering_not_lost at 3:44 PM on October 6, 2012

ginger honey ice cream or creme fraiche ice cream
posted by elizardbits at 4:20 PM on October 6, 2012

Lemon ice cream or sorbet. The holy grail of blackberry pairings.
posted by bz at 4:20 PM on October 6, 2012 [2 favorites]

I reckon apple ice cream would work as well.
posted by A Thousand Baited Hooks at 4:43 PM on October 6, 2012

I second the lemon ice cream, but I'd kick it up a notch with some lime juice as well.
posted by halfbuckaroo at 4:59 PM on October 6, 2012

Brown butter ice cream is ZOMGamazing with berry pie--and, well, anything else.

I also love the cream cheese ice cream idea. I had dinner at a Very Fancy place last weekend, and one of the desserts involved cream cheese ice cream and blackberries, and the flavors went together areally well.

If you want something not quite so rich, honey or lemon ice cream would also be awesome.
posted by rhiannonstone at 5:17 PM on October 6, 2012 [1 favorite]

I've made this delicious corn ice cream a couple of times, and I think it would go well with blackberry pie.
posted by ShooBoo at 7:25 PM on October 6, 2012

What bz said. Lemon is always perfect with blackberry.
posted by litlnemo at 7:47 PM on October 6, 2012

Brown sugar and sour cream. Or vanilla. Or lemon vanilla.
posted by thylacinthine at 7:51 PM on October 6, 2012

Don't know your location, but Trader Joe's sells a very delicious lemon ice cream with bits of gingersnap cookies.
posted by Napoleonic Terrier at 8:21 PM on October 6, 2012

Chocolate. My mother always shuddered, but my siblings and I always preferred chocolate ice cream to the vanilla when she served up her homemade, hand-picked-from-the-gully-blackberry pie.
posted by Chaussette and the Pussy Cats at 10:09 PM on October 6, 2012

Response by poster: Had it been summer (and once it is summer, I'll try this) I would have gone with a lemon ginger.

As it is autumnal in my climate, I went with vanilla cardamom - I also added a pinch of white pepper. It was wonderful.

We've since made a blackberry crisp as well and served it with vanilla cinnamon - that was also lovely.

Thanks for the fantastic suggestions, everyone. In the interest of not making this illegible by marking everything best answer, I picked that first cardamom suggestion by cooker girl.
posted by hilaryjade at 8:14 AM on November 17, 2012 [1 favorite]