I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream. – Howard Johnson, Billy Moll, and Robert King
Here in North America, summer has started and the weather is starting to get hot; one of the nicest ways to beat the heat is with a dish of homemade ice cream. You may think it’s hard to make, but you’d be very wrong; modern electric ice cream freezers are quite inexpensive, and most of them use table salt now instead of rock salt. The freezer can sit in the sink while running to catch any spill, and the canister can be placed in the freezer to harden the ice cream. Nor do the recipes have to be difficult; while custard-style ice creams (like French vanilla) require cooking, simple fruit- or syrup based ice creams or sherbets do not, and are both simple and delicious. Here are three recipes I always use; note that these are for a two-quart freezer, so if yours is larger or smaller just adjust everything in proportion. It won’t look like enough when you pour it into the canister, but it expands considerably during the freezing process.
Syrup-based ice cream
2 cups half-and-half
2 cups whipping cream
¾ cup syrup
¼ cup sugar
Pour all ingredients into container and process as directed by your freezer’s instructions. Yes, it really is that easy, and the results are delicious. You can use any kind of syrup, thick or thin; I like to use those Italian syrups that go in sodas or coffee. Note that if you use a syrup stored at room temperature, the freezing time may increase somewhat. Also note that this recipe is fully compatible with the fruit-based one, so you can make, say, chocolate banana or cherry vanilla by simply mixing a half-batch of syrup-based with a half-batch of fruit based; the machine will do the rest.
Fruit-based ice cream
2 cups chopped or pureed fruit, as you prefer
2 cups whipping cream
1 cup half-and-half
1 cup sugar (if fruit is already sweetened, reduce to ¼ cup)
I prefer to use pureed fruit because it gives a more even consistency and flavor. Note that if you use frozen or near-frozen fruit, the freezing time may be shortened somewhat. See above for comments about combined flavors.
Sherbet
2 cups fruit juice
3 cups whole milk
1 cup sugar
You can use any drinkable-concentration fruit juice; if it’s too concentrated to be a pleasant drink (lemon juice, for example) you’ll need to dilute and/or sweeten it to beverage strength before using it or your milk will curdle and the sherbet will be much too sour. Of the three recipes, I have tested this one the least; it works perfectly with orange juice, though. The first two recipes I’ve made many, many times and the only time the results were less than perfect was the time I used insufficiently-pureed frozen bananas, resulting in more banana chunks than I personally care for.
From my very, very favourite film ever. 🙂
http://youtu.be/7rK3s_BP9kE
as someone now eating mostly plants, and avoiding dairy products whenever possible*, i wonder if you have a sorbet recipe not including ANY milk
*T. Colin Campbell, co-author of The China Study, grew up on a dairy farm. “We thought cow’s milk was the perfect food. I still think so – cow’s milk is the perfect food – for baby cows.”
I’m afraid not, sweetie; I’ve never had to cook for any special diet, so I have a spectacular ignorance of vegan, sugar-free, gluten-free etc recipes. Does soy milk freeze at roughly the same temperature as dairy milk? If so, it seems like you could tinker with small batches of the sherbet recipe using soy milk instead, adjusting proportions of juice to soy milk until it tasted like you want it to.
UPDATE: I just looked it up; soy milk does indeed freeze at roughly the same temperature as cow’s milk. Let us know how it turns out!
I suspect, but don’t know for sure, that coconut milk might work also.
Gramma Krulac used to throw in 1/4 – 1/3 of a cup of rum in hers.
Not enough to get you drunk, but when you’re eight years old and eatin’ that shit … you feel pretty “gangsta”!
I think in my next round of cooking equipment purchases, I might get a small ice cream maker. I haven’t done this in years, but I used to make my own gelato – it came out really good!
One of my older cousins would always make homemade ice cream at family barbecues. She’d bring her equipment and the ingredients so the ice cream was pretty much made to order. It was always ready by the end of dinner and her timing was impeccable.
I used to have an ice cream maker. I broke the bowl, so there went that. But my next kitchen gadget will be an ice cream maker. I could use soy milk, goat milk, coconut milk, stevia, Splenda, honey…
Some of my experiments might be awful, but I already know that some turn out just fine. My pumpkin ice cream, and the peanut butter ice cream, were both pretty good.
I can’t seem to get a hold of liquid nitrogen, so that’s out. Too bad, too, because it’s supposed to make a wonderfully creamy ice cream.
Sailor Barsoom, I’ve used LN2 in various R&D labs, unfortunately it typically comes in fairly large dewars, like 55 gallon drum sizes, which won’t be cheap, also it steadily evaporates so a dewar will be empty in a few weeks whether you use it up or not. Talk to your larger local welding and other gas supply outfits, I don’t know what hoops you might have to jump through to convince them you have a legit need and know how to handle it, the lab I worked at had everything in place for that (we went through a tanker load per month).
For small amounts, like the liter or two you want, your best bet is to make friends with someone at a local university chemistry or materials science department, or a hospital. Both might have access to that.
Thank you. I don’t know any chem profs, high school or middle school teachers, etc. But it is something I can keep in mind. Yeah, there’s no way I’m going to go through 50+ gallons in a month, nor can I afford that. So I’ll talk to a nurse I know, that sort of thing.