Ice Cream

[Katy]

This weekend, I bought an ice cream maker. While I'm currently freezing the mixing bowl, I'm looking for ideas for my first batch of ice cream, and the many more that will quickly follow!

Do any of you have experience making ice cream or have specific recipes to recommend?

I was considering this recipe for my first: Peachgasm! Honey-Peach Ice Cream | Ezra Pound Cake

Thoughts?

[keb]

Make sure your ingredients and base are cold when you put them in the bowl to freeze. It takes a lot less time to freeze and avoids the dreaded overchurn... I usually make base late at night and then let it refrigerate overnight before using. Often I will refrigerate anything I'm adding in as well. Have fun! The only problem with making your ice cream is the staggering amount that you end up eating!!

[Katy]

Would speed chilling the mixture count? I've had the bowl in the freezer since about 2pm yesterday so it should be frozen enough by 6pm when I get home.

[keb]

Usually I'll just make some base every time I have leftover egg yolks (from a souffle or egg-white breakfast or something) and then stick it in the fridge, but I have made an anglaise-based vanilla before for company where I just take the base in a container and let it sit in a bowl of ice water for a half hour or so, giving it a few swirls now and then. You just want to avoid trying to freeze a hot mixture in your ice cream machine.

[Katy]

Usually I'll just make some base every time I have leftover egg yolks (from a souffle or egg-white breakfast or something) and then stick it in the fridge, but I have made an anglaise-based vanilla before for company where I just take the base in a container and let it sit in a bowl of ice water for a half hour or so, giving it a few swirls now and then. You just want to avoid trying to freeze a hot mixture in your ice cream machine.

Thanks for the tips! This is my first ice cream making experience . The only honey I have is lavender, hopefully peach + lavender honey turns out ok .

[tCook]

Libby made this and said the brown sugar base was fantastic. Candied Bacon Ice Cream Recipe | David Lebovitz

[falconea]

Make sure everything is cold and that the frozen part is properly frozen.

I have a fondness for simple fruit ice-creams - fruit puree (freshly made from fresh, ripe fruit), cream and sugar, and maybe a squeeze of lemon juice if needed. I'll have to dig out the recipe. Fantastic made with peaches, nectarines, blueberries, raspberries, mangoes, pineapple... you get the idea. I have a mini ice-cream scoop so I have served up an icre-cream "fruit salad" with at least 5 different flavors of ice-cream.

I also love a good chocolate ice-cream.

Let me know if you want recipes, and if you want me to convert them to imperial before I send them - they're in metric weights.

Audrey

[Katy]

I get the feeling this isn't going to turn out too well.. I guess practice makes perfect!

The churn is going. My hopes are not high..

Maybe a sorbet would be a good place to start?

[Katy]

Make sure everything is cold and that the frozen part is properly frozen.

I have a fondness for simple fruit ice-creams - fruit puree (freshly made from fresh, ripe fruit), cream and sugar, and maybe a squeeze of lemon juice if needed. I'll have to dig out the recipe. Fantastic made with peaches, nectarines, blueberries, raspberries, mangoes, pineapple... you get the idea. I have a mini ice-cream scoop so I have served up an icre-cream "fruit salad" with at least 5 different flavors of ice-cream.

I also love a good chocolate ice-cream.

Let me know if you want recipes, and if you want me to convert them to imperial before I send them - they're in metric weights.

Audrey

Your ice cream fruit salad sounds adorably delicious! Recipes are greatly appreciated! I can convert, or you can .

[falconea]

Wow, I wrote this recipe up originally in February 1993! I've been on the internet for too long, methinks!

Note that it is quite a small batch. This is probably good for your waistline.

200 grams of fruit (see below)
110 - 130 grams sugar
150 ml pure cream
50 ml milk
Good squeeze of lemon juice

Puree fruit and sieve if necessary. Add lemon juice to prevent discolouring. If desired, add some of the seeds sieved out. (Don't use all the seeds; there are always too many of them.)

Whip cream and milk, add sugar and fruit.

Either use a ice-cream machine, or freeze in the freezer in a metal bowl. Take it out every half hour and beat it, making sure to break up any frozen bits completely. When the mixture gets too stiff to beat, put into container.

With a machine this is dead easy to make; the hardest part is preparing the fruit and tossing it into the food processor.

Note: the quantity of sugar depends on how sweet the fruit is, and how soft you like the icecream. 130 g will make it easy to scoop, 110 g is quite a hard icecream. If you want it soft and not too sweet add a little extra lemon juice.

It comes out in the most brilliant colours, and looks very spectactular if several flavours are served in the one bowl. I have made this successfully with raspberries (bright red), blueberries (mauvey-purple), kiwi fruit (pale green with black speckles), mangoes (slightly orangy yellow) and nectarines (yellowy-pink).

[falconea]

Another base recipe you can modify to suit yourself

Well, this one is newer - March 1994!

Almond Ice-cream

7 fl oz milk/double cream (I used about 4 oz cream, recipe specifies 2)
1 egg yolk
2 oz sugar
almond essence to taste (I must have used a teaspoon or even more)
small pieces of good bitter chocolate

Beat together sugar, essence and egg yolk. Brink milk to a simmer, then add slowly to the egg mixture, whisking well. Return to the pan and cook until mixture thickens slightly. Transfer to cool dish, and chill. When cold, stir in cream.

Freeze mixture in ice-cream machine. When it begins to thicken whip hard to aerate. When it's just about too thick to keep churning, add the chocolate, mix, then transfer to chilled ice-cream container and freeze.

Variations:

Peppermint: Use peppermint essence and a touch of green food colouring, if desired.

Vanilla 1: Substitute vanilla essence

Vanilla 2: (The *real* one!) Slice half a vanilla pod down the centre, and scrape out all the seeds. Add both bean and seeds to the milk and heat to extract the flavour. When satisfied remove the bean, measure the milk again and add more to make up for evaporation, and continue as above. A bit of the bean can be added to the container for decoration. Leave all the little black seeds in; it looks nice and adds tremendously to the final flavour.

You could use any essence that has a decent flavour. I wouldn't be trying this with, say, raspberry essence; I'd use a different recipe and fresh raspberries instead. The experiments I intend to try with this recipe include a cinnamon ice-cream, that would be most unusual, and brilliant served together with almond ice-cream. Hm, what other dried spice would make an interesting ice-cream?


PS (2011): Cinnamon ice-cream is AMAZING! Just add powdered cinnamon to taste, keeping in mind that cold taste buds don't work as well so it needs to be strongly flavoured.

[ncb4]

I get the feeling this isn't going to turn out too well.. I guess practice makes perfect!

The churn is going. My hopes are not high..

Maybe a sorbet would be a good place to start?

What happened? And what recipe did you try? If you tried one that had a cooked custard base with eggs in it, that can be tricky at first. Let us know so we can troubleshoot for you.

[jannilee]

Also, what kind of ice cream maker is it? Is it the Donvier or something similar? That needs only an occasional crank. Or is it like an old fashioned one that you have to crank all the time? I love my Donvier. I mostly make frozen yogurt with a really good Vanilla yogurt and whatever fresh fruit i feel like at the moment.

[Katy]

What happened? And what recipe did you try? If you tried one that had a cooked custard base with eggs in it, that can be tricky at first. Let us know so we can troubleshoot for you.

I used the recipe I posted above for the peach honey ice cream. Essentially the problem was the cooked custard base.

I had assumed it wouldn't be so complicated. It seemed to turn out.. gritty.. in some aspect. Maybe I didn't temper the eggs well enough?

I'm assuming this makes it no good to eat .

[Katy]

Also, what kind of ice cream maker is it? Is it the Donvier or something similar? That needs only an occasional crank. Or is it like an old fashioned one that you have to crank all the time? I love my Donvier. I mostly make frozen yogurt with a really good Vanilla yogurt and whatever fresh fruit i feel like at the moment.

Cuisinart .

It's sort of like this one. But a different model because...costco.

I'll have to look up frozen yogurt recipes too! Maybe that's easier?