I wanted to start out with something basic, as this is my first go at ice cream making. I thought that taking a recipe out of the instruction manual that came with the maker would be a good start because obviously those people know what they're doing. I opted for the plain vanilla - then I would add some fresh strawberries at the end for a nice little juicy surprise.
I wanted my ice cream to be the ultra-creamy variety, so I used a custard based recipe because I hear that's the best kind. If you were hoping for a vegan, fat free, sugar free version - this is not the recipe for you. And if you were looking for a vegan, fat free sugar free version, you have no business calling it ice cream. The recipe starts out with 8 egg yolks and a cup of sugar, blended together. Don't worry the eggs get pasteurized later, so I'm not making some kind of salmonella cream.
Here is where the eggs, sugar, heavy cream and half and half (I told you it wasn't low fat) get heated until they are very hot but not quite boiling. As you can see, it is no where near ice cream at this point, just a bowl of liquid-y cream. This is where this ice cream becomes a two day process - because you are supposed to chill the base in the fridge for at least 8 hours and stick it in the ice cream maker the next day. However, we already know how I do things, and I decided that 3.5 hours in the fridge and an hour in the freezer was plenty long enough. It was chilled all the way through, so how much cooler was it going to get?
In the ice cream maker she goes, which had been in the freezer for a couple days, thus making up for the lack of time the base spent in the fridge. I spent a good 25 minutes mesmerized by this thing because it started turning to ice cream right before my eyes. Right around the 28 minute mark I threw in some strawberries that had been pulsed one or two times in the blender.
After 30 minutes was up I turned the mixer off. At that point the consistency was pretty thin, like soft serve that started to melt, but that it what is supposed to look like apparently. You just package it up and stick it back in the freezer for another hour or two to really firm up. That's about the time I gave in to this whole two day process thing and went to bed. When I woke up, I had ice cream for breakfast.
This wasn't bad at all for my first rodeo with ice cream. I want to try out some recipes for sure though just to see where this one really stacks up. Ice cream really is the perfect name for this stuff, I just would have liked this one to turn out a little less icy and a little more creamy.
My Rating: B - It's pretty good but I think I can find something I'm going to love even more
Roommate Rating: B - "The flavor was there but I wanted it to be a little more creamy." As did I.
