How to Make Ice Cream

When my mother’s family would get together for summer holidays or even Thanksgiving and Christmas, they would make ice cream. Homemade ice cream is wonderful stuff. The texture of it is more similar to soft serve ice cream unless allowed to freeze, and you can control the ingredients that went into it.

The hardest part about making ice cream is finding an ice cream maker, and maybe having to put up with the noise for 20 to 40 minutes, depending on the model. I recommend getting an electric ice cream maker because making ice cream is too time consuming to have a manual crank, though there are now ice cream maker balls that you roll around.

I have made small amounts of ice cream by using a double bag method, where the ingredients are in a smaller bag placed in a larger bag with ice and mixed up. The same time I made ice cream in small bags, the organizers served us all the ingredients already mixed and then frozen. It wasn’t as good because it was missing an ingredient – air. The stirring action adds air, making it “light and fluffy,” so it tastes better. I do recommend that if you use this bag in bag method to rinse off the inner bag before opening to remove any salt and therefore prevent salt contamination inside. It happened to me.

The process, especially with a machine, is to have crushed ice and rock salt in the bucket around the canister holding the ice cream materials. The ice is to chill the ingredients, and the rock salt helps lower the temperature of the melted ice. I recommend that the churning with a machine take place with the bucket in a large sink, bath tub, or outside, as the ice will melt and make a mess. Also, secure the canister and motor in the bucket before adding ice. Adding ice before doing this will push the canister into difficult angle for securing the motor.

There are two main types of homemade ice cream – custard style, which makes a custard base by lightly cooking eggs, and American style, which is just cream and sugar.

Further reading and recipes:

• AmericanProfile “Ice Cream Crank-Off”
  
• Baking 911.com – Ice Cream
  
• All Recipes.com – Homemade Ice Cream
  
• Ice Cream Recipes.com
  
• Make Ice Cream.com
  
• Ben Watson does offer a recipe for Caramel Apple Gelato on page 148 of his book Cider: Hard and Sweet
  
• Also check your local library for books on ice cream. They will have some!