Homemade Ice Cream!

When you get an ice cream maker as a gift from your family, you know that it is actually a gift for them. A good friend of ours received such a gift and is now the proud owner of of a very nice Cuisinart Pure Indulgence™ 2 Quart Frozen Yogurt-Sorbet & Ice Cream Maker. Don't get it wrong--she's quite elated to have it so she can experiment with different flavors. In light of this lovely situation, we asked her to give our readers her recipes.

The Cuisinart® ice cream maker (which she calls the kweeze) is a simple machine that has 4 parts: the motor, the freezer bowl, the paddle and the lid. Before even starting, you have to freeze the bowl for a good 24 hours.

What surprised us is that it's an easy formula and not much work. She doesn't mess with eggs/custard because with the ratio or cream to milk, it's delicious without the fiddley stovetop/tempering step.

Here it is:

2 cups heavy cream, 1 cup milk, 1 teaspoon of vanilla, 1/2 cup of sugar, pinch of kosher or sea salt.

Mix it up (furiously whisk or lightly blend) until the sugar is dissolved then refrigerate for 1 hour.

Turn the kweeze on; pour the mixture into the frozen freezer bowl and let mix until thickened, about 25-30 minutes. The ice cream will be like softserve. We like firmer ice cream, so she suggested transferring it to an airtight container and placing it in the freezer for about 2 hours. When you are ready to serve, remove from freezer about 15 minutes beforehand (otherwise, you're going to need a tiny jackhammer to get it out of the container).

That's it!

You can add any flavors you like. Or friend made peppermint using her blender and blending in 13 candy canes or 20 starbright mints plus 1 teaspoon of peppermint extract with the milk before adding the other ingredients. One teaspoon of cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice creates autumn in a cone. For chocolate ice cream, add 1/2 cup of cocoa powder and an extra 1/4 cup of sugar. She has also substituted the cup of milk with buttermilk for a tangy, buttery treat and has swapped out the sugar for maple syrup and added chopped walnuts for a taste of New England.

One important note on mixing in ingredients like crushed cookies (Thin Mints are AMAZING) or chopped nuts or chocolate or crushed up candy bars--wait until the last 5 minutes of churning and add the mix-ins then, otherwise, you could over-tax your motor.

Want to go dairy-free? Here is your hookup:

2 cans coconut milk, 1/2 cup of sugar, 1 teaspoon of vanilla, 1 pinch of salt, 1/4 teaspoon of xanthan gum or cornstarch (to help it crystalize properly). Use this formula just as you would the dairy recipe.

The best part of making your own ice cream is you know what you're feeding your family; no corn syrup solids, no glucose syrup, no stabilizers (like guar gum, polysorbate 80), and no peanut oil (yes, it's true).

The Internet has a gazillion recipes. Culinary Shades (.com) is great for ideas. Have fun exploring and enjoy the sweet fruits of your labor!