Who here has and uses an Ice Cream Maker?

[puerco-bellies]

Ali and I watched a food channel program with a custard like recipe for vanilla ice cream. I have fond memories of my family making our own with one of those hand cranked, then later a motorized home ice cream machines.

We had been talking about doing this ourselves, and with the weather heating up the time is now. We are looking at the "White Mountain" electric ice cream maker. Any one out there with experience, or a recommendation?

[hippywife]

1. We do and love it!

I'm making orange infused dark chocolate tonight! :hi:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=236&topic_id=42944

[puerco-bellies]

3. My god that sounds good.

Post a couple of favorite recipes.

[hippywife]

5. Our little machine makes

only about a quart and a half. I usually don't take the time to cook the ingredients with eggs because you really need to do that the day before and let it chill in the fridge, but it always turns out great.

I will post some recipes a little later this evening, I promise. I'm just on a break at the moment and have to get back to my other cooking and baking for the day.

[hippywife]

9. Recipes, let me see.

First off, I started with the basic recipes that were in my instruction book til I got the hang of it. Now I pretty much wing it but it always starts out like this (bear in mind that mine only makes 1.5 quarts):

1 c. heavy whipping cream
1 c. half and half
1 c. plain yogurt
1 c. sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract

You can also do just cream and yogurt if you want a richer ice cream.

I put all this in a glass bowl and beat it just a little while with my hand mixer. Not too much. I've found this incorporates enough air to keep it from freezing too solid to spoon out once it's been in the freezer for at least a day. If you beat it too much it seems like it ends up like a mousse which never seems to get quite cold enough, even after it's been in the freezer all week. It tastes fine but I want my ice cream very cold and refreshing.

Adding the other ingredients depends on what they are. Fruit, nuts, and chocolate chips go in when it's been in the ice cream maker and is nearly solid, or as solid as it gets. Usually it's just a little softer than soft serve the night I make it, more milk shake consistency, and freezes more solid overnight in the fridge. Adding them in at the later stage ensures they get incorporated through the ice cream instead of just sinking to the bottom and staying there.

To make the orange infused chocolate, I make a ganache early enough to let it sit on the counter and cool all the way or else it will keep your ice cream from setting up in the machine if it's at all warm. If you put it in the fridge, it solidifies too much and doesn't distribute well in the cream mixture.

About 6 oz. of good quality dark chocolate (I buy blocks of Callebaut when I can find it out here.)
1 T. or so of real butter
1 T. or so of heavy whipping cream
the zest of a small to medium orange

Put in a small glass bowl in microwave on defrost setting until the butter melts and the cream is hot. The chocolate will still be semi-solid, but take the bowl out and stir it all together and it will melt smoothly into the rest.

Make the basic vanilla ice cream recipe shown above, add the ganache and 2 TBS. cocoa and blend with the hand mixer. Pour into the ice cream maker and let her rip!

For chocolate almond, I use the same basic vanilla recipe as above without the orange zest, but add almond extract when I add the vanilla. Add chopped almonds when the ice cream is nearly solid.

For mint chocolate chip, I process chunks of the chocolate in the food processor on pulse until it reaches the size chips I want. I add mint extract with the vanilla and add the chocolate chips when the ice cream is nearly solid.

For orange cream, I add the zest and the juice of a small to medium orange into the basic vanilla recipe.

For anything with berries or peaches in it, sugar the fruit ahead of time and refrigerate to bring out the juices. Make the basic vanilla recipe and adding a portion or all of the fruit juice (depending on how much you end up with. I would say no more than a 1/4 cup.) before putting in the machine. Add the actual fruit when the ice cream is nearly solid. Bananas, of course, don't need to be sugared. I just mash them up while the ice cream machine is doing it's thing and add them in towards the end, too.

Once you get used to your machine, the skies the limit really! I even used up some excess homemade pumpkin pie filling once. It's all yummy!

The nice thing about this is that you control the ingredients. No HFCS or anything artificial or synthetic or even the natural yet weird and unnecessary corn derivatives like guar gum or xanthun.

I don't eat very much of it really, just a couple of spoonfuls a couple of nights a week, because I tend not to be much of a sweets eater, and the husband loves to have ice cream every night so that makes enough for him to have it through the week and I just make a new batch each Sunday night usually. Actually, I bought it as a birthday gift for him. I use it but he gets the end product which is just fine with me. I have fun creating the different flavors for him.

Hope you get one that will meet your capacity needs and enjoy it as much as we do. Have fun experimenting! :hi:

[puerco-bellies]

10. Outstanding hw!

I have cut and pasted this in to our recipe .doc file. We just got back from 4 different stores but could only find Cuisinart products. We want the White Mountain brand so it looks like we'll have to buy it online.

[hippywife]

13. I sure hope you find the one you want.

When I do the mint chocolate chip, I've been using the mint extract, which is a combo peppermint and spearmint. It's very good but I think when it's gone I want to try the straight peppermint.

Glad to be of help to you and your family! Enjoy, my friend! :hug:

Edit to add that I always make the ganache for any variation of chocolate at all. And if you have any questions about the recipe post down the line, please feel free to PM me.

[puerco-bellies]

16. I just planted mint in our backyard

Do you know how to make fresh mint extract?

[hippywife]

17. I sure don't!

I make as much as I can from scratch. We eat very little processed foods. But I haven't quite gotten that far yet. Wish I would have had some of that for the tzatziki sauce I made earlier, tho. I'm always afraid to plant it because it can become so invasive.

[ghostsofgiants]

2. I wish!

My next door neighbour did when I was younger though, it was great.

[puerco-bellies]

4. There are smaller inexpensive ones on e-bay.

We have 4 BIG ice cream eaters so we need to lean towards "industrial" output models.

[hippywife]

6. We bought this one at Target

for only around $30 and it's perfect for one or two people.

http://www.epinions.com/Hamilton_Beach_68220_Ice_Cream_Maker

[ghostsofgiants]

7. Nice.

Might have to look into it when I have the spare cash.

[davsand]

8. Make Ice cream in a bag!

http://crafts.kaboose.com/ice-cream-in-a-bag.html

I have wanted to try that with my ten year old and have never gotten around to it. I think it sounds like a lot of fun.

-----

My family used to make ice cream a few times a year and you can make it without having to do the cooked custard thing. I'll have to call my mom and get her recipe for you.

The biggest problem we had was who had to crank the damn thing because that was hard work when it started to freeze. Usually my dad did the cranking because he was so strong. We used to joke that it was all the sweating he did that made the ice melt.

He never did get used to the electric one we bought them.

I have it now and we've not used it. I just found a recipe a couple of weeks ago for a low carb /non sugar ice cream that you cook the base in the crock pot. I'm planning a test run in the near future.

If this works out, I'm gonna have to fire that bad boy up this summer and invite the neighbors over.


Laura

[JackCo]

11. Had some today actually

We made banana which is our favorite. Also we will probably make some next weekend when we cook out.

[hippywife]

12. Besides the mint chocolate chip

banana is my favorite, too. Reminds me of when my mom used to make us banana shakes when we were kids. Husband's not too keen on it tho, and he's really the one who eats it.

:hi: Welcome to DU!

[JackCo]

14. Never made mint choc chip

Just plain old chocolate and strawberry. Can ya tell I'm not very adventurous when it comes to food.

Also thanks for the welcome but I'm actually an old timer(going on 4yrs) just very quiet and low key. I keep saying one day I'll bust out but who am I kidding?

[hippywife]

15. I was the same way.

Was here for four years and only had about 3000 posts. I was getting tired of all the snarkiness in the main forums, even when it wasn't primary season and stayed away for a long time. Plus we were busy being organizers for our local peace group for years. Then I ventured into the Lounge and the other various interest groups and that changed! LOL Lots of nice folks in the Lounge and the groups.

I posted a bunch of recipes for puerco-bellies up above. Might be some you'd be adventurous enough to try. Not really much to it, actually.