To keep the colors from bleeding, we folded the berries and coconut into the ice cream after the churning was finished.

For a change of pace, we also tried the Avocado Ice Cream from "125 Best Ice Cream Recipes," by Marilyn Linton and Tanya Linton (Robert Rose, $18.95).

Popular in South America, avocado ice cream has a beautiful color and a velvety texture.

For the adventurous, the "125 Best Ice Cream Recipes" also includes tomato basil, sour cherry and black pepper, and roasted garlic flavors.

Nutrition-wise, ice cream can be on the high-fat side, but you can decrease the fat content by using half-and-half instead of heavy cream, or 2 percent milk instead of whole milk. However, the resulting treat will have more of an icy texture.

To smooth out the icy, grainy texture in a fat-free Berry Sorbet, we used strawberry jam as suggested in "The Dessert Bible."

Preserves have a lot of pectin in them, which interferes with the ice crystallization. Jams also add a lot of concentrated flavor.

And how about polishing off your ice cream with homemade root beer?

In early days, root beer was made from the roots of the sassafras tree, and licorice root, sarsaparilla root, cherry tree bark and other flavorings. The modern-day method is a lot easier. You can find root beer concentrate in the flavorings aisle near vanilla extract. Use dry ice for carbonation, or add a can or two of club soda.

Also included is a recipe for root beer-flavored ice cream, which is like having a root beer float in a bowl.

E-mail: vphillips@desnews.com

RED, WHITE AND BLUE ICE CREAM

2 cups whole milk

1 1/3 cups sugar

4 cups heavy cream

2 large eggs plus 4 egg yolks

3 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups pitted sweet cherries, quartered or roughly chopped

1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries

1 cup shaved sweetened coconut

Combine milk, 2?3 cup of the sugar and the cream in a heavy saucepan over medium-high heat.

Bring mixture to 175 degrees on an instant-read thermometer, stirring occasionally. Mixture should be hot but not bubbling.

Meanwhile, combine the whole egg and egg yolks with the remaining 2?3 cup sugar in a medium bowl and beat with an electric mixer or whisk by hand until pale yellow and thick, about 2 minutes with a mixer or 4 minutes by hand.