Ice Cream!

If you stick around here long enough, I think you will find a pattern- it will be food I love every time. Generally, it won't be stuff that is good for the waist line, and is why the OCD part isn't so good for people who have access to our fridge. As indicated in the introduction, ice cream is my other weakness, and the center of my last recipe obsession.

I didn't look very far to get my start on this new compulsion. Ben and Jerry have a recipe book, and it is a good read. There is a bunch I can share from this thing, but I will start with the basics, namely because I'll start with the tools, and it's my favorite and quite easy to make!

I made the mistake of trying for the cheap maker. It was one quart, and a cheaper brand- it stopped working as soon as the ice cream was getting firm. Go the extra mile when getting a machine, it is worth it.

We have a Cuisinart 2 quart maker. I don't know if you remember the ice-in-a-salty-bucket thing as a kid, and maybe it's just me sitting by that bucket waiting waiting waiting.... but ice cream is created pretty quickly now, with a little prep time. Makers come with a prep bowl that you freeze for 24 hours. You have to take some care when cleaning this, sending it through the dish washer will ruin it... but from pour to finish, your ice cream is done in less than 30 minutes in this thing, and the vanilla recipe from Ben and Jerry is a quick, no cook base for everything you like to mix into ice cream.

It sounds excessive to buy a 2 quart machine. The good reason to do so anyway is that ice cream expands quite a bit while being made. The first maker I bought on the cheap stopped working the first time out. Also, adding your favorite candy/cake/cookies/syrup is quite a strain on the motor of your maker.

Without further ado, Ben and Jerry's basic vanilla. Please try this at home with your favorite mix at the end!

2 large eggs
3/4 cup sugar
2 cups heavy cream or whipping cream
1 cup milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1. Whisk eggs in a mixing bowl until light and fluffy, 1 to 2 minutes. Whisk in the sugar, a little at a time, then continue whisking until completely blended, about 1 minute more. Pour in the cream, milk, and vanilla and whisk to blend.

2. Transfer the mixture to an ice cream maker and freeze following the manufacturer's instructions.

Adding to this a package of heath bar crunches from the cooking aisle of the grocery store is why our maker has been exiled to our top shelf, and the purchase of ice cream making goods is under intense scrutiny. Ben and Jerry suggest four bars worth, but after my experimentation, their recommendations are too low on all accounts, no matter what you are adding. I did cookies and cream... need more cookies... etc etc etc. If you are doing something like cookies, my experience is to make sure some bigger chunks are in there. My cookies and cream turn out almost like chocolate. Don't get me wrong, it was delicious, but you need those chunks in there. Whatever it is, it gets added at the very end. Mixed for two minutes and then in to the freezer or into your bowl. Incidentally, the only thing that sucks more than cleaning a deep fryer is cleaning one of those soft serve machines. I was the apprentice for that- another engineer was "the guy" I was learning from. If you think I'm pedantic, just wait for him to start a blog.

Alton Brown did a whole episode about ice cream, and I had no idea there was a five level grade system about what ice cream is all about. Much of it has to do with how much air ends up in there- your light stuff has lots, your decadent stuff has less. Good Eats is my favorite food channel show, but alas- I didn't love his recipe, so it isn't included here.

I am looking for a chocolate recipe that is good. I have tried a couple recipes and have failed badly, my wife can account. My underscore_favorite_ununderscore is B&Js brownie batter- I think there is a reward for a mix that pulls that off in the home. The chocolates I have attempted are either mediocre (barely edible but I'm the man for the job) or bad. (there is only so much bad ice cream I can eat!) I am also looking for lower calorie versions. In general you vary the fat of the cream / milk that you use- all recipes use a variant of milk to cream.

I will look to do lower calorie recipes- my wife loves my red chili, ground turkey recipe that is about as basic as it gets. I don't cut corners on ice cream, though!