Who doesn’t like ice cream? Ice cream is one of those foods that unite everyone, like pizza- you can’t not like some sort of variation of it.
For our wedding, E and I were lucky enough to receive a Ben & Jerry’s ice cream and dessert recipe book, all the ice cream toppings, bowls, spoons, you name it… everything we needed for a sundae party except the ice cream. Now, we could have gone out and just been boring people who take the easy way out and just bought a carton of ice cream, but no. Instead, we went out and bought an automatic ice cream maker.
My memories of making ice cream as a child are foggy, probably because we did it so few times. I remember it being difficult to do and annoying to clean up. E and I went with the automatic version, the one where you turn the dial, wait twenty five minutes and theoretically you have ice cream. No hand cranking or salt involved.
I am here today to share the three recipes we have tried so far. All recipes start with the very same base, and then vary by ingredients and at what point you add them. Enjoy!
Sweet Cream Base
2 large eggs
3/4 cup sugar
2 cups heavy or whipping cream
1 cup milk
Whisk eggs in mixing bowl until light and fluffy, about 1-2 minutes. Add sugar a little at a time and whisk until completely blended (another 1-2 minutes). Whisk cream and milk in until blended.
Pour into ice cream maker and make per manufacturer’s instructions.
Makes 1 quart.
Strawberry Ice Cream
In addition to the Sweet Cream Base, you need…
1 pint strawberries, hulled and sliced
1/3 cup sugar
Juice of 1/2 lemon
Combine the strawberries, sugar and lemon juice into a mixing bowl, cover, refrigerate and let sit one hour.
Prepare the Sweet Cream Base. Drain strawberries but keep the juice, put the drained strawberries back in the fridge. Mix the juice ONLY into the base. Put base into ice cream maker and make per manufacturer’s instructions. 2 minutes before ice cream is done, take strawberries out of fridge and add to mix.
Snickers Ice Cream
In addition to the Sweet Cream Base, you need…
Mini snickers, chopped up
Prepare Sweet Cream base and add to ice cream maker. Make per manufacturer’s instructions. About 2 minutes before finish, add chopped Snickers.
Hint: for best results, keep Snickers in freezer until ready to use.
Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice Cream
In addition to the Sweet Cream Base, you need…
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Half a roll of cookie dough, cut into small pieces
Prepare Sweet Cream base , adding and blending vanilla extract after the milk, and add to ice cream maker. Make per manufacturer’s instructions. About 1 minute before finish, add cookie dough.
Hint: for best results, keep cookie dough in freezer until ready to use.
Stephanie Jean 