Sunday, August 25, 2013
IT'S THE JUNGLE RED ICE CREAM CRANK OFF!
DEBORAH CROMBIE: We are now undoubtedly into the dog
days of summer. Here in Texas we might get a little relief from the heat after Labor Day, but in the meantime, my thoughts turn to... ice cream!
Growing up, the tub of hand-cranked ice cream was a summer ritual. My cousins and I took turns pouring the rock salt and turning the crank. Inevitably, we were all thoroughly sick of the cranking by the time the ice cream was done, but it was worth the work. Cold and creamy, it melted on our tongues--a pleasure as fleeting as fireflies on a summer night.
Of course, now we have an electric ice cream crank (more efficient but horribly noisy) but it's been years since I actually made ice cream. My favorite was peach. But the peach season is drawing to a close and I can't find my old recipe.
Help, REDS and readers! Share your favorite recipe for homemade ice cream. Any flavor! And let's all have a last taste of summer!
To my way of thinking, the best of the best is always chocolate, but here’s a really yummy peach ice cream recipe:
ReplyDeletePare, slice, mash four pounds of ripe peaches.
Stir in one-half cup sugar and one-eighth teaspoon sea salt.
Tightly cover the peaches, refrigerate until sugar is dissolved. Mix well.
Combine one teaspoon vanilla, one-half cup sugar, two cups cream, two cups whipping cream.
Partly freeze; when half-frozen, add the peach mixture and finish freezing.
Apricots may be substituted for the peaches.
Make my own ice cream? You girls crack me up. My fave recipe is to say "Mint chocolate chip, please." And then someone gives it to me.
ReplyDeleteAw, Debs, you won't believe I just prepared this for freezing tomorrow!
ReplyDeleteFresh Peach & Buttermilk Ice Cream
Ingredients
1. 2 Extra Large Ripe Peaches, pealed, pitted, sliced (makes 2 cups)
2. 1 C Sugar
3. 1 Egg
4. 1 ½ Tablespoons Lemon Juice
5. ¾ Teaspoon Grated Lemon Rind
6. 1 ½ Teaspoons Vanilla
7. Dash of Salt
8. 2 Cups Buttermilk
Method
1. In blender, puree peach slices with all other ingredients except buttermilk.
2. Stir in buttermilk.
3. Using hand crank or electric ice cream maker, prepare according to manufacturer’s directions.
4. It won’t be solid, but just holding its shape.
5. Pack into freezer containers. Freeze firm.
6. Suggested Garnish - Mint Sprigs.
*Makes about 5 cups.
We LOVE this!
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ReplyDeleteNote: I leave out the egg, and I usually leave out the lemon rind so it doesn't overpower the peach flavor.
ReplyDeleteArghhhhh, I just deleted all I had written.
ReplyDeleteI've never had homemade ice cream. Sounds like I'm missing something good.
I have frozen greek yogurt after adding some splenda and fresh berries and it was not too bad.
Around here all the shops sell some sort of caramel and salt ice cream. Is that popular all over?
One learns so much from Jungle Reds! :-)
Just had Jeni's Ice Cream for the first time yesterday, with Nancy Martin, Kate Collins, and Casey Daniels, all of whom were in Columbus for a panel at Barnes & Noble. Jeni's originated in Columbus, and they have unique and fabulous flavors.
ReplyDeleteMy husband is not supposed to have ice cream because of his cholesterol, so earlier this summer I experimented with this three-ingredient coconut "ice cream": coconut cream, a little sugar, and vanilla. (I used coconut sugar, and next time I will hardly use any.) It was FABULOUS. But my husband turned up his nose at it! More for me.
Here's the recipe, which is dead simple, although it does work best with an ice cream maker. I used the kind with the canister you freeze for 24 hours ahead of time, which works really well, and the ice cream is done in 20 minutes (no hand cranking for me!). http://www.thehungrymouse.com/2013/04/30/3-ingredient-coconut-ice-cream-vegan-no-cook-totally-amazing/ I added a 1/2 cup of shredded coconut. Orgasmic, I promise.
And, bonus: if you sprinkle a little cocoa powder on it the result tastes like a Mounds bar.
Oh this all sounds so good! Peach is my favorite too, and ours are just coming in--fabulous!
ReplyDeleteMarianne, caramel and sea salt is all the rage right now. In fact I had a library event yesterday and someone directed me to a chocolatiere off the beaten track in Goshen CT. I had a piece of chocolate with caramel inside and salt on top. I thought I'd died and gone to heaven....
I have excess peaches that I bought for a farmers market pasta salad, and now I know what I'm going to do with them!
ReplyDeleteMy favorite ice cream recipe so far is Meyer Lemon & Strawberry Ice Cream. Meyer lemons are a little sweeter, so if you use regular lemons you'll need to add 1/4 cup more sugar.
1/2 cup Meyer lemon juice
2 large eggs
3/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons butter
2 cups half and half
1 pint strawberries, hulled and sliced.
1 tablespoon sugar
Combine strawberries and one tablespoon of sugar and let sit for a couple of hours to draw the juice out. Mash the heck out of the strawberries so you don't have big solid pieces - when frozen, they turn into icy chunks. (The original recipe has you adding the strawberries during freezing, but I like to cook them into the custard mixture. If you want strawberry chunks and swirl, do this step just before freezing.)
Combine eggs, sugar, lemon juice, strawberries (with juice) and butter in the top of a double boiler. Place over simmering water and beat with a hand mixer for about 15 minutes until the mixture thickens. This is basically lemon curd. Let the curd cool a but then add the half and half. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until thoroughly cold. Freeze according to your machine instructions.
This tastes like lemon meringue pie with strawberries, and frankly I could eat the curd just as it is if the ice cream weren't so darn wonderful, too.
and our dogs deserve ice cream too! I'm going to make this for Harley -
ReplyDeleteIngredients:
32 oz. of plain yogurt
1 cup peanut butter
3 ripe bananas
Blend, pour into ice trays, freeze for a couple hours.
Reine, buttermilk and peaches! I love anything with buttermilk. Sounds like heaven.
ReplyDeleteAnd Sandi, the Meyer Lemon and strawberry sounds divine. Am going to pick up ingredients today because we have Meyer lemons in the stores.
No ice cream recipe, but funny memories of our very large doberman "guarding" the ice cream freezer (hand crank variety). When we'd rinse off the salt/ice and take off the top we'd give him the paddles to lick. He was an ice cream lovin' dog!
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a kid we would walk to the ice cream plant in the summer for cones. They had a counter out front. My favorite was watermelon sherbet, which I have not seen since the late 50's.
ReplyDeleteLast summer we had a bunch of watermelon, so I decided to try making the sherbet. It was a big hit. I took some to book club, and everyone wanted seconds. Best of all, it was exactly how I remembered it: sweet, fruity, and refreshing.
I'm with Rosemary, Debs. Why waste all that effort when the Three Twins are just down the hill. Their salted caramel is pure heaven, and their products are now in stores all over the country.
ReplyDeleteMy brother rented a hand-crank ice cream maker for a picnic once. He followed whatever recipe the store gave him, real fresh cream, etc. then added a box of ripe strawberries. One of the greatest things I've ever tasted.
ReplyDeleteLOVE salt and carmel.
ReplyDeleteMaking ice cream? You can do that? :-)
I HAVE put little containers of yogurt in the freezer, like MArianne, so that counts, right?
I'm all for good store bought! My fave is Hagen Daz Rum Raisin. After that their Lemon, and their Ginger.
ReplyDeleteBut even the limited ingredient, all-natural ice creams don't taste like home made.
And home made really is a fleeting pleasure. Because it doesn't have the emulsifiers used in store bought ice cream, it doesn't re-freeze well.
Which means that when you make it, you should have friends and family over and EAT IT UP:-)
Deb, have you taken the Blue Bell Creamery tour in Brenham?
ReplyDeleteFree ice cream of your choice at the end. Yum.
Oh, Debs—yes homemade ice cream is social.
ReplyDeleteKaren, I use the same type of ice cream maker—Donvier. It's wonderful and one I can use myself. I'm going to try your coconut ice cream recipe next week if I can find coconut sugar. I don't know what it is, so wish me luck. xo
Reine, the recipe says "sugar"; I used the coconut sugar because A) I had it on hand, and B) because it has a lower glycemic impact.
ReplyDeleteBut as I said, I think you can get away with nearly no sugar, especially if you use shredded coconut (which I added in the last five minutes).
I actually have three ice cream makers: the Donvier, a similar but larger-sized Cuisinart, and an electric wooden bucket type that was a wedding gift in 1982. The last one requires crushed ice and salt, though, and it makes such a mess. However, if I wanted to make a lot of ice cream, that's the one I'd use, since it makes a half gallon at a time.
Right after we got married we had an ice cream party, since we got married in Vegas and had not had a reception. It was a blast.
Karen, that sounds delicious! I love shredded coconut in recipes, so I will use that too. I had never heard of coconut sugar before. Thanks for the info.
ReplyDeleteCoconut ice cream is one of my favorites. We have delicious coconut ice cream bars from Mexico here in Tucson.
Here's my recipe, but it's going to be hard to get all the ingredients.
ReplyDeleteTake a small town in Texas in the 50's with no air-conditioning in high summer.
Add a tiny little grandmother who's the center of the family.
Get some cream from the neighbor's cow.
Find some peaches from a nearby orchard.
Add eggs from my grandmother's chickens and however much sugar my grandmother thinks is right.
Get out the hand-cranked ice cream maker, pour the ingredients into the liner and pack with ice and salt.
Line the kids up in order, smallest to biggest.
Smallest kid cranks until it's too hard, then it goes to the next, finished up by my strong grandmother.
Dish it out into big bowls. Eat until you feel sick.
In the summer, lemon-lime iced milk is cool and delicious and isn't a calorie bomb. The plum strussel looks good, too, but we never got beyond the iced milk. http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Plum-Streusel-Pie-with-Lemon-Lime-Ice-Milk-108263
ReplyDelete