Friday, August 27, 2010

I scream, you scream . . .

we all scream for ice cream!

On my long list of things I wanted to accomplish this summer was making ice cream.  I kept buying all the ingredients and then just not getting to it.  So I went back to the store repeatedly for fresh ingredients. The strawberries had been eaten, the half and half was expired, we used all the eggs for breakfast.  But now I am proud to report that with a lot of help and enthusiasm and borrowed ice from my neighboors, we have now made ice cream not once, not twice, but three times, in three different ways. 

First attempt. 
Method: Kitchen Aid Ice Cream Maker attachment. 
Very handy, attaches right onto my stand mixer.  My only complaint is that the freezer bowl has to live in your freezer for 15 hours before you make the ice cream.  Which means you have to plan ahead, not my strong suit when it comes to cooking.  And you have to make the space for it in there with all the frozen pizza. Not easy!  Kids can help you make the batter, but then there's some overnight wait time while it chills, then they can watch the mixer and listen for the clicking to know it's done (unless your child is scared of the mixer, then you'll have to do most of the work yourself like me).

KitchenAid KICA0WH Ice Cream Maker Attachment

Recipe:  Triple Chocolate
Who doesn't love something that has chunks of Hershey bar AND three other kinds of chocolate.  If I'm counting correctly this should actually be called quadruple chocolate because it had semisweet baking chocolate, unsweetened baking chocolate, unsweetened cocoa powder, plus the chopped up Hershey bars which you add literally at the last minute.  It was a little on the complicated side.  Lots of ingredients and lots of steps.

Results: Yum! It made enough that we ate some fresh, then put the rest in a big tupperware and ate it for a few days, maybe even a whole week.  So I guess all that hardwork paid off!

Second attempt.

Method:  Mega Ice Cream "Ball"   http://www.icecreamrevolution.com/
The big plan was that the mob of kids outside on a hot day were going to kick the ball around for the 30 minutes it takes for the ice cream to freeze.  As it turned out, the ball is too heavy for the little kids to kick or push around for very long. And even the big kids ran out of attention span for this one, so the moms ended up doing most of the "shaking".  You have to pack the ball with ice so you need to plan ahead to save up enough (or go door to door borrowing ice).

Play and Freeze Mega Ice Cream Maker,Quart,Red
Recipe: Vanilla
All it took was half and half (I actually didn't quite have enough so I mixed in some whole milk), vanilla, and sugar.

Results: Yum!  It freezes hard around the edges where it is touching the metal canister, and it's more like soft serve in the center.  Scoop it into bowls and eat right away!  Or if you don't have a big enough crowd to eat it all, scoop it into a tupperware and freeze it for later.


Third attempt.

Method: Ziplock Bags
I like this because you don't need any special equipment, most of us have two sizes of plastic bags on hand already.  But you still need quite a bit of ice!


Ziploc Sandwich Bags - 125-Count
Recipe: Vanilla
Whole milk, sugar, vanilla.  You probably have those on hand too! 


Results: Yum!  Firmer than the ice cream ball. It freezes faster because it's broken up into single servings.  It's less time to shake, but our kids still didn't stick with the shaking for the whole five minutes. Beware that this strategy uses lots of plastic bags so be prepared to wash and reuse them.  We ate it straight out of the bags but I suppose you could transfer it to a dish. 


Watch out Haagen-Dazs five!  I can make yummy ice  cream with only three ingredients. 


1 comment:

  1. This is great Jane. We have a big plug in Ice Cream maker if you ever want to borrow it. You have to put ice and salt in the outside, but it churns away and then you have ice cream pretty quickly.

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