I love summertime. Ever since I was a kid, I loved it. The endless days, the beach and BBQ. But I always loved Ice Cream. The sound of the Good Humor Man... Coming down the street and ringing his bell. Every kid in the neighborhood would scream, "ICE CREAM!" and probably make each and every one of our parents crazy.
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| Homemade Ice Cream |
Now that I am an adult.... well sort of... I still love ice cream, but I am concerned about the quality of the things I am ingesting. Dairy today is different then the dairy we had when I was a kid. And did you know that I read an article which said that Vanilla may not even really be Vanilla? The article said that there is some sort of bacteria that secretes some sort of thing that tastes similar to Vanilla, so companies can use that flavoring and call it Vanilla and supposedly no one would know the difference!
In fact, they can say All Natural, and it can be Vanilla made in some lab. Well, that is not my idea of Natural! It is funny that Breyers used to say all natural, and it doesn't anymore! Enough of my ranting, back to the point... Ice Cream!
I want Ice Cream that is good and real. Where Natural means with stuff that is not from a lab. I want Organic Dairy in my Ice Cream. No Xanthum Gum. No Polly Wolly Sorbate 8000. So, in a moment of impulsiveness, I bought an Ice Cream Machine, A Book on how to make Ice Cream and a great stainless steel Ice Cream Scoop! Since getting it, I have to say it is one of the best purchases I ever made...
Homemade Ice Cream Making Recommendations |
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Armed with these wonderful things, I made Homemade Ice Cream... I used organic dairy and I have to say from my very first attempt, it came out amazing! So, like David Lee Roth says, "I'm Your Ice Cream Man, Stop Me When I'm Passin By!"
My first attempt was to make Black Raspberry Homemade Ice Cream. You know, with those organic black raspberries that you have been seeing me grow for the past few years on my YouTube channel! Wow! It came out amazingly intense and delicious. The texture and density was similar to Haagen Daz. Unbelievable for my first attempt. I thought I just had beginner's luck.
My next Homemade Ice Cream was Mint Chip. I pretty much followed the recipe in the Ben and Jerry's book, but doubled the mint extract. I also hand chopped up some Newman's Organic Dark Chocolate bars and added that in place of chocolate chips. Of course, I used organic cream and milk. My second Ice Cream attempt was as good, or even better than the first one! I never imagined that it could be so easy to make Ice Cream that was even better than what is sold at those expensive boutique shops.
Yesterday, I made my third Homemade Ice Cream. It was Vanilla Malt Chip. I added Malted Milk to the mix and tiny Ghirardelli semi-sweet chocolate chips. My head is spinning. I don't know which one is the best. Each of these Ice Creams is off the hook good! And I am not an expert!
The beauty of making your own Homemade Ice Cream is you can make it with organic ingredients, real Vanilla and Fruit. In fact, most basic Homemade Ice Cream recipes have only a small handful of ingredients. For example:
1 Cup Of Organic Milk
2 Cups Of Organic Heavy Cream
3/4 Cups Of Organic Sugar
2 Organic Eggs
1 Tablespoon of Vanilla Extract, Organic of course!
With these five ingredients, you have Vanilla Ice Cream! Add fruit if you want. Add Chocolate Chips! Get creative!
I have to say the Ben and Jerry's book is amazing! If you want to make Homemade Ice Cream, then you must have this book. Those guys have excellent recipes for just about any Ice Cream you could imagine. They even have a Pumpkin Ice Cream! Ben and Jerry: I love you guys! You are Pioneers! Thanks for writing such an amazing book!
The recipes in the Ben and Jerry's book say that they make a generous quart of Homemade Ice Cream. That is really more like a quart and a half. I would recommend not adding more than that to your Ice Cream machine, if you get the same one that I purchased. In other words, don't double the recipe, even though you have a two quart machine. There will be more than enough for some, uhhh, quality control tasting as you are making the Ice Cream...
One piece of advice is to freeze the bowl at least a day before making Ice Cream with the machine. The bowl is sort of like a Freezer Ice Pack in the shape of a bowl, so it freezes the homemade ice cream as it turns it. If you want to make two flavors in the same day, get the extra bowl insert, so that you can freeze both bowls 24 hrs before.
While the Ice Cream Machine makes some noise, it is not nearly as loud as I thought it would be. The quality of the machine and the Homemade Ice Cream it makes is outstanding. The mint chip ice cream I made was a really fun activity to do with kids. We had a blast!
If you are thinking about getting an Ice Cream Machine, just do it. You know you want one. It is so worth it. At least you can say that you are giving your kids real homemade ice cream with quality ingredients.
