What kind of foodie would I be if I didn’t try making things myself.
Since I have a major sweet tooth, I’ve always wanted an ice cream maker because it means no more trips to the store for premium and super expensive ice cream: I could just make it at home.
Luckily, my sister-in-law got an ice cream maker last summer, and since she hadn’t opened it, I borrowed it from her promising to share my ice cream creations.
Since then, I’ve been churning out a recipe a week, indulging my whole family in some good old fashioned, home churned ice cream.
A word about the machine: I’m using the Ice Cream attachment to the Kitchenaid mixer. I like that I didn’t have to buy a whole new appliance, which would take up storage room. You simply put the whole canister that the ice cream in which the ice cream is churned in your freezer for 15 hours, and then you can churn your own ice cream. If you have a small, packed freezer, you may need to plan ahead so that you actually have enough space in your freezer to put the canister. We have a deep freeze, so we didn’t have this problem – I pretty much just store the canister in there full time so that it’s ready when I am.
On to the recipes.
The first recipe I tried was a plain custard-style vanilla ice cream: you know, egg yolks, milk, sugar, and vanilla.
I didn’t like this: it tasted like frozen custard instead of frozen ice cream.
The second recipe was another fail: peach frozen yogurt. I just put homemade frozen yogurt and peaches in the ice cream maker and went to town. This yielded a result that was too icy and not creamy enough.
The third try was a charm: I used a recipe for Cheesecake ice cream, which I’ll share later. It came out rich, creamy, and so delicious that it’s definitely one that I’ll make again.
A few notes on the Kitchenaid Ice Cream Maker, if you do happen to be in the market for one. It churns lovely ice cream but is a little difficult to use.
You need to turn on the mixer before you put your ice cream mixture in there. If you put the mixture in first, it’s going to immediately stick to the sides (which are frozen metal) and the mixer won’t be able to churn. You may even break the churning attachment, so this is essential! I found it best to put the mixture in a little jug so that it poured easily into the ice cream maker.
Because the canister is quite narrow, it’s quite difficult to get a thicker ice cream mixture in there while the attachment is spinning. You literally have to put it in by little spoonfuls which is really annoying and takes a long time even if you’re making a small batch of ice cream.
The canister situation is also not ideal for mix-ins. Many recipes say to churn the ice cream 3/4 of the way through and then put the mix-ins in and churn some more. If you do this with the Kitchenaid mixer, it’s so narrow that the mix-ins stay on top and don’t get properly churned, so actually, I think it’s better to churn the ice cream until it’s done, and then mix in the mix-ins by hand. The ice cream ends up being soft-serve consistency anyways, so it’s fairly easy to mix by hand.
All said and done, I have nothing to compare this mixer to because it’s the only one that I’ve tried, but if you have an ice cream maker, I’d love to hear your thoughts!
I’m making my cheesecake ice cream again soon, so I’ll post the recipe once I’ve taken some pictures!
What are your favourite flavours of ice cream? Do you have any interest in making ice cream at home?
