About four years ago, I paid £10 for a second-hand electric ice cream churn. It's probably the best £10 I have ever spent. When it eventually stops working, it's one appliance I shall replace without any question. Making ice-cream at home is considerably less expensive than buying decent quality ice cream, and I know exactly what goes into it. I can adjust ingredients to suit various tastes, making anything from a luxurious, fattening treat to a healthy, fruity yogurt ice.
I soon discarded the recipe booklet (which was over-complicated) once I realised there are four main styles of home made ice cream (excluding sorbets). Perhaps the most popular uses some kind of egg custard base with cream; the most luxurious uses cream without custard; the most inexpensive uses an evaporated milk base; the most healthful uses a thick yogurt base. Here are some basic recipes for each, which can be adjusted to suit different tastes, with a few variations.
Sometimes it won't turn out quite like you expected - I've had some unaccountably so hard that we almost needed a pickaxe to cut into them, and some a little bland. Sometimes they're too sweet, sometimes not sweet enough. But none of these are serious problems; serve with fruit or with pouring sauces to complement them, or leave them to thaw for another half-hour. I've never yet made ice-cream which was totally inedible!
Each of these recipes makes about a litre. They can all be made without an ice cream churn, but you have to keep removing the mixture from the freezer every couple of hours and stirring, otherwise it separates into layers.
CUSTARD BASE WITH CREAM
This makes a very good vanilla ice cream, and also works well with chocolate or choc-chip. I don't find it so good with fruit, although there's no particular reason why it shouldn't work with strong-tasting fruits.
Mix the eggs, sugar and vanilla essence with a fork, until frothy. Warm the milk on the hob or in the microwave, and mix with the frothy mixture. Re-heat it all (this is much easiest in the microwave) stirring every minute until thickened. Cool, then chill in the fridge for several hours. Whip the cream lightly and fold together with the custard mixture. Churn in ice-cream machine for an hour then transfer to plastic container and freeze several hours. Thaw a little before serving.
• Note that you must use real vanilla essence (extract) for a good flavour. If you can't find this, a sachet of vanilla sugar can be substituted. Never ever use artificial vanilla, which in my view tastes vile and ruins everything it touches.
• You can, if you must, use something like Bird's custard powder rather than the eggs - use whatever quantity you would need to make thick custard with 500ml milk and follow the recipe on the side. Cool, chill in the fridge, then fold in the cream as above. This is more successful with flavoured ice cream (see variations) than with vanilla.
Variations
CHOCOLATE: Stir about a tablespoon of cocoa powder into a little of the milk before heating it, then mix together with the rest of the milk.
MINT CHOC-CHIP: Use 1/2 tsp peppermint essence instead of vanilla (and add a little green food colouring if you like such things - we never do). Add in about half a cup of chocolate chips (polka dots) AFTER the churning has started, otherwise they tend to sink to the bottom of the churn and freeze on the bottom.
FRUIT: Reduce whipping cream to 200g, and fold in about 100g of unsweetened fruit puree. Taste before churning, as you may need to add a bit of extra sugar.
CREAM BASE
This works out the most expensive, the most fattening, and the most luxurious! It's also rather quicker than the custard-base ice creams, but I don't really feel it's worthwhile making vanilla ice cream this way. I find this best for fruit ice creams - you can experiment with whatever fruits are in season.
250-300g fresh fruit, prepared, (eg strawberries) OR 500g can of fruit (such as apricots) 100-200g sugar (to taste) juice of ½ lemon 350g whipping cream
Blend the fruit (drained if it's canned) with the lemon juice in a liquidiser, or mash until pureed. Whip the cream, then fold in the fruit and sugar. Pour into ice cream maker and churn for about an hour. Transfer to plastic container and freeze for several hours, then thaw for a few minutes before serving.
EVAPORATED MILK BASE
This is my most commonly used ice-cream recipe. It's relatively inexpensive, it's nothing like as fattening as those made with cream, it's simple (no cooking required), and it even produces soft-scoop ice-cream which doesn't need any thawing before serving. I don't find this works too well with most fruit, other than bananas (see 'variations') as the evaporated milk taste is too strong, but it makes one of the best chocolate ice creams I've tried.
1 426g can evaporated milk, chilled overnight in the fridge 100g sugar 1 sachet vanilla sugar or 1tsp real vanilla essence
Whip the chilled evaporated milk with an electric beater until it is thick, and the beater leaves a trail. This should only take about a minute with chilled evaporated milk. Whisk in the sugar and vanilla essence, then transfer to ice cream machine and churn for an hour. Transfer to plastic container and freeze for at least 6 hours before use. If you make this one without an ice-cream churn, it's a good idea to add 1 tsp gelatine dissolved in 1 tblsp hot water, then cooled, with the vanilla essence; this helps it to keep its consistency, but is not necessary for churned ice cream.
Variations
BANANA: use 100g soft brown sugar instead of ordinary sugar, omit vanilla essence, fold in 3 ripe bananas mashed well with 1 tblsp lemon juice after whisking in the sugar.
CHOCOLATE: omit vanilla essence. Stir 2 tblsp cocoa powder into a small amount of cold water, sufficient to make a smooth paste that's just pourable, and fold into the evaporated milk after whisking in the sugar.
YOGHURT BASE
We use thick Greek strained yogurt for this. It makes quite a hard ice-cream which needs some softening before serving, but it's very tasty - surprisingly like those made with the cream base. It's ideal if you want to make small ice lollies for children using the plastic moulds that are readily available, since it doesn't tend to melt fast.
1 large can (about 500g) fruit - eg peaches or pineapple - chilled OR about 300g fresh fruit, prepared 100-150g sugar (white or brown) 500ml thick natural yogurt juice of ½ lemon
Drain fruit (if canned) then blend in liquidiser with lemon juice, until pureed. Stir into yogurt with sugar. Pour mixture into ice cream maker. Churn for an hour then transfer to plastic container and freeze for several hours. Thaw a little before serving.
• You can combine this with the cream base, using half yogurt and half whipped cream. The taste is very little different although it's slightly softer, and of course higher in fat.
AND FINALLY...
This is our family's all-time favourite ice-cream recipe. It requires a bit of forward planning as condensed milk has to be boiled in its can for several hours, then cooled, but I tend to do about three at a time, as they keep for ages. It's actually a cream-based mixture but isn't as straightforward as that, so I've included it separately.
TOFFEE ICE-CREAM
1 400g/14oz can condensed milk 500ml milk (semi-skimmed or whole) 50g soft brown sugar 250ml whipping cream
Place unopened can of condensed milk in a pan of water, ensuring that the water covers the can. Bring to the boil, cover the pan, and simmer for about three hours - topping up the water if necessary. Make sure it doesn't boil dry! Remove from the heat and cool to room temperature. Do NOT try to open it at this stage!!!
When cool, open the can which should now contain soft toffee, then put the contents in a saucepan with half the milk and the brown sugar, heating gently and stirring with a wire whisk until the toffeed condensed milk blends in with the other ingredients. When fully dissolved, remove from the heat and stir in the rest of the milk. Leave until cold, then refrigerate until chilled, at least 3 hours.
Whip the cream, then fold into the chilled condensed milk mixture, and pour into the ice cream churn. Churn for about an hour, then transfer to a plastic container and freeze.
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