Ice Cream Recipes – one tutorial you need

Summer classes are officially over! So I were searching for an ice cream recipe.

It’s a relief to get classes over and I am sure all of you have experiences with that particular feeling. We celebrated the semester end with a bottle of Cout du Rhone and Friday night at Lucky’s Lounge. But, No celebrations end without a cup of ice-cream. So we are celebrating with a lot and lot of ice cream.

Does this happen to you? When you’re taking break, do you ponder about your current work? Do you question “Should I continue to do this rigorous work?” “What do I gain from this?”

Last month I blogged quite less and I am sure you all have seen I was missing in action from Facebook and blog. So, I had a plenty of time to think. I gave a serious thought to my blogging journey and wondered if I should really keep this blog. One day I told my husband and two of my confidantes (you know who you are) ‘I should stop this. There is absolutely no benefit of wasting my energy behind this – who even reads my posts?’

Then I realized, I do blogging for me. I do blogging to share my words. I am journaling these recipes so my future generation can cherish our family recipes for centuries after centuries.  This is no different than writing on a piece of paper.

I blog to write about my crazy experiments. Where else I can write about “yogurt making” and people out there to not laugh at me. If I am blogging, I think less (I naturally think too much). In a nutshell, it keeps me sane.

And most importantly I blog to share my photography. Unlike many photographers I don’t own a portfolio so this blog is my photography portfolio.

So here I am again, rambling and blogging.

But it’s quite hard to come back to blogging after a long gap. So when  I was shooting my feet were trembling. When I was writing, my hands were shaking. I did not like the pictures I took. It took me over 10 days to finish just this ice-cream post.

Last year I made 2 Ingredients No Churn Ice cream. As sexy as it sounds, my husband does not like overly sweet condensed milk in his desserts. So I ended up giving away those ice-creams. This year we thought of buying an ice-cream maker, then we did a tally of pros and cons.

Pros:

• Cheap
• Easy to make ice-cream.

Cons:

• How often I will use it (maximum 4-5 times a year as we both are diet conscious)?
• Space consumer (big deal for a 40 square foot kitchen).

So I conducted an ice cream experiment and three ice cream recipes.

What’s our goal today?

We are trying to learn ice cream making without an ice-cream maker.

Why should I trust you?

I have conducted the experiment of in my kitchen and pictures here speak for it.

Why are you telling me to make ice cream at home?

You can play with your choice of flavors and this is a simple summer dessert you can make to impress your in-laws (in my case), family, friends, kids and who not. If you have none of them, just make for yourself.

What did the ice-cream maker do to you?

Nothing. It’s actually quite cheap. But my 40 square foot kitchen does not have any space for it. Ice-cream is not an everyday matter at our home.

Why should not I invest on an ice-cream maker?

I am not stopping you. If you have space and money, please do it by all means. But I have written down some quite simple procedures so you *won’t* need an ice-cream maker.

I remember reading most of these procedures somewhere. Where was it?

It was Kitchn. Here are some quite useful links.

How To Make Classic Ice Cream at Home?
The 4 Essential Ice Cream Bases You Should Know
5 Mistakes to Avoid When Making Ice Cream
How To Make Ice Cream Without an Ice Cream Machine: An Easy, Foolproof Method

How can you make ice-cream without Machine?

The original ice cream recipe is followed from here. I purchased 5 pounds of ice from super store. They cost less than $2.

Very large mixing bowl
Ice*
Salt
Small bowl of ice-cream mixture prepared below.
Electric Whisk

1. Fill the large mixing bowl with ice. Add salt and mix it well.
2. Make a nest and put the small bowl inside. Transfer the ice cream mix into it.
3. Using a electric whisk, beat the mix for 10 minutes.
4. Transfer the small bowl and the large bowl together in the freezer. Freeze for 45 minutes.
5. Take it out and whisk it again for 5 minutes.
6. Remove the small bowl from the large bowl. Cover the top with a cling wrap but make sure it touches the surface of the ice cream. Chill it 2 hours to overnight.

Ice Cream Recipes

The three ice cream recipes and flavors I tried.

1. Egg Custard Base :: Vanilla Flavor

Original Recipe is from here.

1 1/1 cups whole milk
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
2/3 cup sugar
2 vanilla bean (split and scraped)
4 large egg yolks

1. In a sauce pan over medium-low heat, heat milk, cream, sugar, vanilla beans including the pods. Cook for 4 minutes or until all the sugar dissolves. Take it aside.
2. Add a bit of milk to the egg yolk and keep whisking. It will raise the temperature of the egg yolk. Slowly add the egg yolk to the milk and cream mixture. Stir it continuously for 5 minutes, otherwise your milk will curdle.
3. Strain it into a big mixing bowl.

You can use the ice cream maker at this point or follow my no machine method.

2. Philadelphia Style Base :: Fresh ginger and date jaggery (Nolen Gur)

Original recipe is from here.

2 cups heavy cream
1 cup whole milk
1 inch fresh ginger, grated
1/2 cup palm jaggery (nolen gur), grated
1/4 sugar (if needed)

1. In a saucepan, over medium-low heat, heat heavy cream and sugar for 4 minutes or until it’s heated. Take it off the heat and stir with ginger and jaggery. Be very sure to add the jaggery after taking it off the the heat, otherwise milk with curdle.
2. Check the sweetness, if it’s not sweet enough add sugar. Remember your ice cream mixture will be quite sweet as sweetness reduces upon freezing.
3. Strain the ice-cream mixture into a small bowl. You can use ice-cream maker now or follow my no machine method.

Inspiration came from Deeba Rajpal.

3. Cream cheese and corn starch base :: Pistachio, Cardamom and Spanish Saffron

Original recipe is from here.

2 1/4 cups whole milk, divided
5 teaspoons cornstarch
2 ounces cream cheese
1 cup heavy cream
2/3 cup sugar
15 cardamom, crushed and seeded
1/4 cup pistachio, ground
1 tablespoon saffron, crushed

1. In a bowl, add cornstarch and 1/4 cup milk. Whisk it thoroughly until there is no lump. Set it aside.
2. In another bowl, add cream cheese and another 1/4 cup milk. Whisk it throughly. Set it aside.
3. In a sauce pan, whisk remaining milk, heavy cream, sugar, cardamom. Cook for 4 minutes or until sugar dissolves. Add the milk and corn starch mixture. Cook it for an another 2 to 3 minutes or until the corn starch is dissolved. At this point your milk and cream mixture will be semi thick.
4. Add a little bit of the milk to the cream cheese mixture. Stir it continuously. Slowly add rest of the semi thick milk mixture. Stir it to dissolve the cream cheese mixture.
5. Strain it into a bowl. Add ground pistachio and saffron. Transfer it to the small bowl and whisk it for 5 minutes. You can use ice-cream maker now or follow my no machine method.

How can you save the ice-cream?

After taking the ice creams out, make sure you cover it well again with a cling wrap. The cling wrap should touch the ice cream otherwise it will form ice crystal which can ruin any ice cream. You can follow the same technique for store bought ice cream after using the first time.