How To Make Ice Cream

Looking for the perfect cool treat for that nice and hot summer day, or a creamy sweet teaser to cleanse your palate after a great dinner? Below are some very easy to follow recipes for delicious homemade ice cream! Never made ice cream before, well then you are in for a treat!

Believe it or not, but ice cream is fairly easy to create. There are many benefits of making your own personalized ice cream versus buying a pre-made pint at the store, or spending around $10.00 for a specialty cone at a ice cream parlor.

There are generally two ways for making real ice cream from scratch. You can either prepare the ingredients and make it with an ice cream machine, or you can brave the adventure and try it without one!

We will first explore how to make ice cream without a machine.

Making Ice Cream Without an Ice Cream Machine:

(This recipe will supply you with 1 quart of plain vanilla ice cream)

Ingredients:

• 2/3 C Sugar

• 2 C Heavy Cream

• 1 C Whole Milk

• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

• 1 vanilla bean, scraped (meaning cut the vanilla bean in half, and scrape out the actual beans)

Ice Cream Making Instructions:

• Combine the sugar, the cream, the milk, along with the vanilla extract in a saucepan. Heat this mixture until the sugar has entirely dissolved.

• Take the vanilla bean, scrape it (as instructed above), and remove the seeds from the vanilla bean. Add the beans into the mixture and stir. Quickly remove from the saucepan from heat.

• Gently pour the cream mixture into a baking bowl, and proceed to cover it with plastic wrap. Take the bowl and place it in the fridge to cool.

• Once the mixture has cooled, place the bowl into the freezer (if it is a freeze-friendly bowl), or transfer the mixture into a freezer container.

• Let it sit in the freezer for two hours, then open and enjoy!

Since this is such a simple recipe, it is very easy to dress up your ice cream. Add toppings of your choice from chocolates to any variety of seasonal fruit. Want to have strawberry ice cream instead of vanilla bean ice cream? Very simple extra step:

• Take a box of strawberries and make sure that you wash them thoroughly.

• Puree half of the box of strawberries, or put half of the box of strawberries in a blender and set aside.

• After you remove the cream mixture, annotated above, add the strawberry blend into the mixture.

• Cover the mixture with plastic wrap, and proceed to chill as directed above.

Want to add a healthy spin to your ice cream? Instead of using 2/3 C of sugar, try using 16 packets of Splenda (or comparable brand), for a sugar free taste!

Now, if you are fortunate enough to own an ice cream maker, the recipe below is simplistic enough to follow and then create delicious creamy ice cream.

Making Ice Cream with an Ice Cream Machine:

Ingredients:

• 4 egg yolks only

• 1 C Sugar

• 2 C Whole Milk

• 2 C half-and-half

• Dash of salt

• 2 tsp of vanilla extract

• 2 C whipping cream

Ice Cream Making Instructions:

• In a saucepan, gently whisk the milk, egg yolks, salt and sugar together

• Turn the stove on to medium heat, and whisk the mixture until it begins to simmer.

• Lower the heat on your stove, and continue whisking for 5 more minutes, or until you start to notice the mixture thickening.

• Pour the mixture into a larger bowl, and slowly whisk in the half-and-half, vanilla extract and the cream

• Cover the bowl containing the mixture with plastic wrap and refrigerate until it has thou roughly chilled (This usually takes around two hours).

• Once you feel the mixture is adequately chilled, pour it into your ice cream maker.

• From this point, you will follow the instructions from your ice cream maker to finalize your ice cream making!

Looking for a fun variation of this recipe? Instead of having vanilla ice cream try substituting 1 tsp of peppermint extract in lieu of 1 tsp of vanilla extract. Once the ice cream has been frozen, top with your favorite peppermint toppings!