Blueberry Butter Cookie Gelato with Homemade Waffle Cone Cups

I’ve never been very enthralled with ice cream. Never really got the hype. Never felt the need to drench my pies with frozen cream that would instantaneously melt. Never went gaga over build your own sundae bars. Never understood why, when every single woman on every single TV show was heartbroken they would immediately reach for the Ben & Jerry’s.

I just didn’t get it. It was fine, good even, as long as it was a right, place right time kind of occasion; take for example, a blazing hot Kansas summer night. No, in my times of need, instead of ice cream, I’d reach for pizza, pasta or pretty much anything fried – ice cream never even crossed my mind. This rang true until my later college years, when my perspective took a 180 degree turn after I had my very first taste of gelato on my very first day studying abroad in Rome. Life changing.

I must have sampled 30 different varieties during my time there, each one better than the last. When I returned home, I managed to seek out just about every single gelato spot in the greater Kansas City area, all equally delicious, but all lacking that wow factor the gelato shops elicited in Italy. Can you imagine, that after all of my experience tasting different gelatos, I stumbled across my very favorite flavor, even above anything I had in Italy, at a local pizza chain – albeit, a gourmet pizza chain, but a pizza chain nonetheless.

Blueberry Butter Cookie.

I mean, just the name alone gives me a warm fuzzy feeling inside. This is the opposite of everything I dislike about certain ice creams. It’s light. It’s not overly sweet. And it’s definitely something I can eat my feelings away with.

Making this treasured jewel of mine has been on my mind for quite some time, but there’s something very intimidating about trying to replicate something you love so much. Would I ruin myself from it forever? Would I perfect it, and then get sick of it, never to have it again?

Have I told you I have a tendency to overanalyze?

A blueberry sale at my market pushed all my fears aside – plus who can resist 3 pints of blueberries for $2.99 – not I.

I started with the blueberries, I knew I wanted the gelato to have that beautifully purple color, and blueberry essence, but not necessarily have an actual giant blueberry in each bite, so I cooked the blueberries down in a little bit of water and sugar until they were almost liquid and the berries were in pieces. I then added in the whole milk and heavy cream and brought everything up to temperature.

Here’s where it gets a little tricky, and where most ice creams fail. In a separate bowl you need to whisk the rest of your sugar with the egg yolks, and then slowly whisk in the hot milk mixture to the eggs. You then pour the egg mixture back into the milk and blueberries, turn the heat down to a low temperature and stir until the mixture thickens. I always like to err on the side of caution, so make sure to keep your heat pretty low, you’d rather it take longer to thicken, than bring the heat up too high and curdle your eggs, which I unfortunately did. Trust me, patience is key here, otherwise you’ll be like me and have to make a separate trip to the grocery store for more berries and milk, where your patience will be tested yet again when the cashier takes a million years to check out the guy in front of you who is in the fast lane, but has a hundred things, and you forgot that the exit to the parking lot was closed due to construction, and you’ll have to go five minutes out of your way to get around it, and you will be mad. Patience!

Anyways, the point is, don’t curdle your eggs! After the mixture thickens, it cooled and stored in the fridge overnight. Once you’re ready to make the ice cream, get your base out from the freezer, pour it in and watch the magic happen!! When the gelato is almost done, throw in some crushed butter cookies, and then transfer everything to an airtight container and store in the freezer until you serve it.

I was seriously shocked at how identical this tasted to the original, better even, if I do say so myself. I had to leave the leftovers at my parents house so I wouldn’t be eating it 24/7 – it’s that good.