Homemade Ice Cream

     Hmmm, so much good food in the past few days, I'm not quite sure where to start.... Ice cream, ribs, apples, chicken, popcorn... let's start with dessert.

My beautiful baby

     Mr. Pepper loves gifts that benefit him (he's sweet). So for Christmas 2010 he purchased me a Colbalt Blue Kitchenaid Mixer. You see, this benefits him because now I can bake and he reaps the rewards. And, oh how he has reaped them, between cakes, cookies, brownies, and cinnamon buns, Mr. Pepper has been my faithful resident taste-tester, a job that he eagerly accepts. Then, for Christmas 2011, Mr. Pepper gave me a Kitchenaid Ice Cream maker. See, another gift that he benefits from, so now, between all the cakes, cookies, etc, he has added homemade ice cream taster to his repertoire.

       On Tuesday I decided to make some ice cream, and it's about a 2 day project (it's tough when you want the ice cream right now). Tuesday morning I put the ice cream making bowl in the freezer. It has to freeze solidly, so make sure you remember to do this... it's horrible when you go through all this work and remember that you forgot to freeze the bowl. I made this portion of the recipe on Tuesday afternoon, and finished it off on Wednesday.

The ingredients

       So, the recipe (pretty much the one that came to with the mixer, but with less vanilla):

• 2 1/2 cups half-and-half
• 8 egg yolks
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 1/2 cups whipping cream
• 3 tsp vanilla
• 1/8 tsp salt

The mixture

1. Heat half-and-half until very hot, stirring often. DO NOT BOIL. Remove from heat.
2. Whisk yolks and sugar on speed 2 until blended and thickened. Gradually add hot half-and-half. Mix well.
3. Return mixture to saucepan and cook over medium heat stirring constantly until small bubbles form and mixture is thick on the back of a wooden spoon. DO NOT BOIL.
4. Transfer mixture to a mixing bowl and stir in whipping cream, vanilla and salt. Cover and chill thoroughly (at least 8 hours).

The inspiration

      Wednesday afternoon I was getting ready to put it into the ice cream maker when I had a brainstorm, "What if I made it rippled?" "Rippled you ask?" "Yes, with berries." So off I went to find a recipe. Luckily the August 2012 issue of Chatelaine had a recipe.

The berry syru

1. Combine 2 cup of berries (they suggested blueberries, I used frozen 'power berries' - a combination of blackberries, cherries, raspberries and pomegranate) with  1/2  cup of honey and 4 tbsp lemon juice in a saucepan.
2. Set saucepan over high heat and bring to a boil.
3. Reduce heat to medium and gently boil, stirring occasionally, until syrupy, about 10-15 minutes (because my berries were frozen I found that there was  still a lot of liquid left over, so I let it simmer for longer to cook off the liquid).
4. Transfer to a metal bowl and chill in the freezer for about an hour. 

      

My gift at work

Now that the ripple was chilling, I started prepping for ice cream making.

1.   Attach the frozen bowl and dasher (that's the mix head) to the mixer and turn to "stir" (speed 1). Using  a container with a spout, pour the ice cream mixture into the freeze bowl. Continue on stir for 15-20 minutes (I generally go a bit longer) or until desired consistency.

2.   Alternate adding layers of ice cream and the syrupy mixture into your container of choice before freezing.

3.   Freeze.

Yield: 16 Servings

When serving, let stand at room temperature until slightly softened, about 10 minutes before attempting to scoop.

Enjoy!

Mel