Amanda re: ice cream

[Deleted]

I just started making ice cream, so I'm not an expert by any means. This last batch was my second one, so I'm still tweaking things.

This is the vanilla base that I've started with and it's working out well.

1c milk (it says whole, but I've been using 2% and it's fine)
3/4c white sugar (I've been using light brown sugar packed)
Pinch of salt
2c heavy cream
2T vanilla extract (I wanted o use a whole pod scraped out, but I didn't have any and settled for Mexican vanilla instead)

Whisk first 3 indigents until sugar is dissolved. It took about 7 min on lev 4 with my stand mixer.

Stir in next 2 ingredients until combined.

Here's the important part (not sure what ice cream maker you have and I'm giving these directions based on the cuisinart no salt ice cream maker)

Make sure the bowl has been in the freezer for a full 24 hours and the ice cream milk base has been in the fridge for 24 hours too. Everything needs to be really cold when you start.

The bowl is the last thing I take out of the freezer before I start mixing. Make sure you turn the unit on before you pour the mixture into the ice cream maker. It takes about 14 minutes to get a soft batch, then I pour everything in to Tupperware and let it freeze over night.

Oh and another important tip, right before you take the soft ice cream mixture out of the bowl to put it in Tupperware add 1/8 or 1/4 (depending on how much you want to taste the alcohol) teaspoon hard alcohol to the mix. I let it mix in in the last minute or two before transfering. This will prevent it from freezing into a hard mass and will keep it scoopable.

I've been mixing in ingredients, by hand, after I transfer it to Tupperware. I haven't made mine with candy pieces, but you should probably crush them pretty small or else it will end up like ice cubes mix in with ice cream.

What kind of candy are you going to use?

[amandasw]

hmm, ok. well darn, according to your instructions I won't be eating ice cream tonight I was going to try this recipe: blogs.babble.com/family-kitchen/2012/05/28/real-vanilla-ice-cream-recipe-no-custard/ and most recipes said to just put the ice cream in the freezer for 2-4hrs before eating, but that alcohol tip is pretty good I imagine if you keep it longer. I bought some heath bars because I always love it when I go to Cold Stone and forget about it otherwise. Well, I'll give it a try and see what happens!

Oh, I'm using the ice cream attachment for my kitchen aid, which MIL got me for Christmas and I have yet to use. They are coming on friday and H told me I should be able to tell her that I've used it and love it (lol). Plus I think I'll make some for them next week, but want to test it out first.

thanks for the help!

[Deleted]

Did you make it last night? How did it go?

[amandasw]

yup! it worked out pretty well I think! I don't have any shallow tupperware unfortunately, so I had to just put it in a large plastic bowl - after 1.5hrs in the freezer the edges were ice cream consistency. I didn't feel like ice cream for breakfast so I didn't test is out this morning The health bar pieces are perfect, I love the chocolate and toffee bits in there. The only 'negative' comment I have about my recipe was that it tastes too much like whipped cream with all the heavy cream in there (which isn't *bad* exactly, just not what I was hoping for). Although I guess, maybe when it firms up the flavor changes. I think I'll try yours next time (I stuck with mine because I'd already bought the half and half), plus the brown sugar sounds kind of interesting. And then I might give it a go with an egg recipe!

[sarack]

omg, i need an ice cream making immediately. did you guys see the hamilton one i posted? it's super cheap and i hear it doesn't a great job.

question: can you taste the alcohol at all?

[Deleted]

amanda- i have a good egg recipe if you want that one. It says it's for cheesecake ice cream, but it's not really that cheesecake-y. I'm glad everything worked out!

sarack- the cusinart one isn't too spendy and IMHO it does a great job. www.amazon.com/Cuisinart-ICE-21-Frozen-Yogurt-Ice-Sorbet/dp/B003KYSLMW/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1338390370&sr=8-2

And the taste of the alcohol totally depends on how much you put in. I added 1/4t of rum to my pineapple ice cream and there was a slight rum finish in each bite, but I added 1/8t rum to my cheesecake chocolate one and you couldn't taste the rum at all.

[sarack]

omg.. how was the cheesecake chocolate? do you find this is cheaper than buying icecream???

[Deleted]

I was a little disappointed that it wasn't super cheescake-y, but I still liked it. I used a dark chocolate drizzle in it, so it was sweet, but not too sweet.

I haven't bought ice cream at the store for a long time, so I'm not sure how much it is any more.

I have most of the ingredients on hand anyway, so the only thing I really had to buy was the heavy cream and I think that was $4 for a quart of organic cream.

I get about 5 or 6 cups of ice cream out of each batch.

[amandasw]

further update: ok, this ice cream was pretty amazing. So I didn't add any alcohol because I just wanted to try it out, see what happens and then alter things next time, etc. Well, it didn't freeze hard at all and was the perfect consistency. It might have to do with the higher fat content? Oh and yeah, heath bars are PERFECT in ice cream, little chocolate, toffee, saltiness... I'm not an ice cream person, but I had to make H take it away from me last night

Anyway, I'm going to try your recipes next time, this is pretty fun!

[jennlin]

i have the cuisinart one! h has made some amazing coffee flavored ice cream before.

as for the alcohol, i read somewhere that instead of using *actual* alcohol, you're supposed to by alcohol flavoring--because the alcohol doesn't freeze as well, and if you want to add enough to taste it, it won't freeze.