Sunday, February 20, 2011

Making ice cream

This week it's my turn to bring dessert to our neighborhood potluck, so in addition to a couple of cheesecakes, I decided to make ice cream as well. We have a full fridge with Matilda's output, so ice cream seemed like a handy way to use up some of her bounty.

Here's the recipe I used (for vanilla ice cream):

1 quart heavy cream
1 1/4 cups milk
2 t vanilla
1 1/4 cups sugar, divided
10 egg yolks
1 T vanilla

1. In a heavy saucepan over medium heat, combine cream, milk, and 2 t vanilla. Add half the sugar. Allow to just come to a boil.

2. Meanwhile, whisk the egg yolks together with the remaining sugar and 1 T vanilla.

3. When the cream is ready, pour a third of it into the egg mixture and whisk. Slowly pour the egg mixtures into the cream on the stove, stirring constantly. Heat until the mixture coats the back of a metal spoon. Do not boil.

4. Chill custard until cool, then pour into the canister of an ice cream maker and freeze according to manufacturer's directions.

I got this recipe online, BTW.

I started with ten egg yolks.


Added vanilla...


...and half the sugar...


...and whisked.


Then I got cream and milk...


...and combined them in a pot with the rest of the sugar and vanilla.


I stirred until it just came to a boil.


Then I added a third of the cream mixture to the eggs and whisked...


...then slowly added the egg mixture into the cream on the stove.


At this point it's a custard. I gently heated it until it coated a spoon...


...then put it outside to cool for an hour or so.


We got our ice cream maker from a thrift store years ago for $5. Works like a champ.


Pouring the custard into the canister.


I have to crush ice cubes by putting them in double plastic bags...


...and smashing them with a rubber mallet on the kitchen floor. (Hey, whatever works.)


Our ice cream maker calls for one cup of rock salt.


Here I've packed the crushed ice and rock salt around the canister. (I later added more ice and salt.)


With everything assembled, I plugged in the machine and let it rumble and grind for half an hour.


The ice cream comes out yellow and rich. Very rich.


Scraping the ice cream off the beater into a bowl.


I put it in the freezer overnight and it will be a yummy dessert for the potluck.

12 comments:

  1. My dad (born 1927) said that's how his mama made ice cream, from a custard base, and in his opinion, it's the ONLY way to make it. :)

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  2. Yum! This takes me back to my childhood when Granny would make ice cream. Delicious! My favourite thing was to take a half-spoon of icecream, and dip it into a cup of hot chocolate and have a delicious mouthful of cold ice cream and hot chocolate at once.

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  3. That is just too awesome for words. It shows you care about your friends since you take the time to make them such a marvelous treat.

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  4. Here's what I would do....

    Grab some waffle cones from the cupboard. Go outside into the fresh, clean (not yellow!!) snow and fill the cones with the cold white stuff. Take them inside, pour some food coloring on the snow, dribble some sugar water on the snow and call them Snow Cones! Voila - done in 3 minutes and just like at the fair.

    This is why nobody asks me to make dessert for potlucks.

    Your ice cream looks delicious. I would have eaten the whole thing and then I would have to make another batch for the dinner.

    Now you know why I can't fit through the door to get to the potluck.

    Anonymous Patriot
    USA

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  5. I love making homemade ice cream. Last year, a very good friend gave me the ice cream bowl attachment for my Kitchenaid stand mixer, and I absolutely love it. All I have to do is put the bowl in the freezer 15 hours prior to making the ice cream. When I'm ready, I pull the bowl out of the freezer and put my custard in. Fast & easy, and I don't have to worry about adding salt or ice.

    Shannon

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  6. Could you have put snow in around the bowl instead of ice cubes or is it not cold enough for long enough?

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  7. Snow would be cold enough to pack around the canister, but it would melt too quickly with the salt.

    - Patrice

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  8. Yum! I'm so glad now that I picked up some Breyers on the way home this afternoon, since I'm not in your neighborhood...

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  9. We've always made "snow ice cream" the way AP does, but with a splash a vanilla as well. The kids LOVE to do this- lol.

    My ice cream maker won't work here in Germany, even though I have a few 110v outlets in our military housing. I'm hoping it'll work once we move back to the States.

    Enjoy the potluck!
    KatieJ
    Germany

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  10. Dibbs on licking the mixer paddle!!

    Can't wait for the strawberry boat to come in!!

    A.McSp

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  11. Have you ever tried making it raw, ie, not cooking the milk? I keep doing this as I hate to go through all the effort to get raw milk (we don't have a Matilda) and then cook it, but our ice cream is always icy, not creamy. Luckily my kids are small enough to not know the difference, but I do, and I'd love to know how to make it raw AND creamy! If you know, would you share?

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  12. Theayers5, the cooking isn't so much to pasteurize the milk as it is to cook the eggs. Raw eggs in ice cream would be pretty disgusting...(wink).

    - Patrice

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