Home Made Ice-Cream

I just noticed that Rowan is still wearing is PJ shirt, really nice.

    Yeah the nice weather is here!!!  That means one thing... homemade ice-cream!   As soon as it became short weather my kids began to bug me "When are you going to make ice-cream, when are you going to make ice-cream?"  Homemade ice-cream has become a summer tradition at our house.  I love homemade ice cream for a few different reasons.  The obvious reason is that it is delicious.  Here is the most important reason that I love homemade ice-cream.  I happened to have a carton of Nestle Parlour Chocolate & Banana.  No where on the package does it say "ice-cream".  I just looked at the ingredients... modified milk ingredients, sugar, milk ingredients, chocolate ripple (sugar, water, condensed skim milk, glucose, hydrogenated coconut and soybean oils, cocoa, salt carragenan, artificial flavour, potassium sorbate), glucose, coconut oil, cocoa, mono-and diglycerides, propylene glycol monostearate, cellulose gum, carob bean gum, carrageenan.  Artificial flavour, colour.  May contain peanuts and tree nuts.  Are you frightened?  I am.  Guess what's in my chocolate banana ice-cream?  Cream, whipping cream, sugar, bananas and cocoa powder, and vanilla.  I rest my case.

    It's really easy to make, although not cheap to make.  The most important ingredient to good homemade ice-cream is a good ice-cream maker.  I did not know this when I began ice-cream making.  My first ice-cream maker was a sunbeam.  It made good ice-cream, or so I thought.  It broke, and I purchased a Cuisinart brand ice-cream maker.  The Cuisinart cost me $40.00, worth every penny of it.  After reading the "Ben and Jerry Ice-Cream Book", I discovered the difference.  Better ice-cream has more air in it.  I don't know why that is, I just know that it is.  

    When I was a little girl my parents raised goats.  My Mom would go out and milk the goats, then strain the cream off of the top.  We also bought fresh milk from a local farmer ( a BIG no no today), and the cream would separate to the top, and could be easily skimmed off.  That cream went to making homemade butter, and homemade ice-cream (where ever could I have developed my need to make food  from scratch).  Back in the old days we had this big wooden ice-cream maker.  We put ice around the outsides, and then sprinkled it with rock salt.  I know that the middle canister had a motorized churn, I just don't remember what it looked like.  Thankfully my ice-cream maker is not like that at all.  I freeze my outer part in the freezer for 24 hours, and then we are good to go.

    I mix in a mixing bowl, 2 cups of whipping cream, 1 cup of half and half (you can reverse these if you like), 3/4 of a cup of sugar, and 1 tsp of vanilla extract.  I whisk them together and then pour them into the ice-cream maker.  It takes about 20 minutes to make the ice-cream.

    For this batch of ice-cream I made S'mores ice-cream.  I melted marshmallows in the microwave, then added it to the ice-cream about 15 minutes into the mixing.  I broke up squares of chocolate, and crumbled bits of graham crackers into it.  It was a hit!

    I love that my ice-cream creations are limited only to my imagination.  I love experimenting.  Some of our favourite ice-creams to date are maple walnut (I mixed in a can of sweetened condensed milk and real maple syrup, with walnuts), and apple pie (I cooked apples in the oven with cinnamon until they were soft.  I put them in the freezer to cool, then added them.  Chocolate orange ( I melted chocolate and added orange extract).  So far we have not had any duds.  It's lots of fun to experiment, and the kids love to watch me make it, and they like to sample my creations even more.

    So what are you waiting for, go out and get yourself an ice-cream maker and have some fun!