The homemade ice cream thread

[Levin]

Harry and David peaches (and all produce) are wildly overpriced and don't taste that good. If you wanted an authentic end-of-summer experience, you should have gone to an orchard and picked some peaches.

[LA Ute]

Harry and David peaches (and all produce) are wildly overpriced and don't taste that good. If you wanted an authentic end-of-summer experience, you should have gone to an orchard and picked some peaches.

In SoCal roadside fruit stands (put up by the farmers themselves) are a good option for excellent peaches. I just had one for breakfast. It was superb.

[Lost Student]

Not sure what to tell you. My grandpa's ice cream is awesome. I prefer it to any store-bought brand. I don't think he has any secrets, just the normal fresh fruits & stuff.

My grandpa died five years ago. He would've turned 96 two days ago (the moon landing was on his 45th birthday). He made ice cream for family Sunday dinners all summer, so I ate a lot of ice cream growing up (it's memories like this that make me sad we don't live close to any of my kids grandparents).

In his honor, I've been making ice cream with my youngest daughter lately. She really likes to do the egg yolks but it takes her about 10 eggs to get six unbroken yolks. Oh well, hopefully the memories will be worth a few eggs.

I found this recipe for the base, which is pretty similar to a few others posted in this thread. So far we've made a couple batches of banana and one of strawberry. I really want to do peanut butter flavor and add in ribbons of peanut butter at the end. My middle daughter really wants us to make the Nutella flavor so we'll probably try that one soon.

https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/...oull-ever-need

There's a link in the recipe to a chart for over a dozen flavor recipes.

Ingredients

2 cups heavy cream
1 cup whole milk
⅔ cup sugar
⅛ teaspoon fine sea salt
6 large egg yolks
Your choice of flavoring (see note)

Preparation

In a small pot, simmer heavy cream, milk, sugar and salt until sugar completely dissolves, about 5 minutes. Remove pot from heat. In a separate bowl, whisk yolks. Whisking constantly, slowly whisk about a third of the hot cream into the yolks, then whisk the yolk mixture back into the pot with the cream. Return pot to medium-low heat and gently cook until mixture is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon (about 170 degrees on an instant-read thermometer).

Strain through a fine-mesh sieve into a bowl. Cool mixture to room temperature. Cover and chill at least 4 hours or overnight. Churn in an ice cream machine according to manufacturers’ instructions. Serve directly from the machine for soft serve, or store in freezer until needed.

This recipe for ice cream base may be churned on its own, but it is meant to have flavors added. See the chart here for flavor options and directions for incorporating them into the base recipe.

[BigFatMeanie]

Carmel, cashews, and Heath bar is the go to at our house.

[Surfah]

Homemade ice cream sucks.

[Northwestcoug]

Homemade ice cream sucks.

Yup. We used a Ben & Jerry’s recipe book. I could get some good flavors, but I could never get more than a smoothie-like consistency. I’m sure there’s a way to do it, but I got frustrated and we stopped doing it years ago.

[Jeff Lebowski]

Homemade ice cream sucks.

Agreed. The best homemade ice cream I have ever had was not as good as any premium ice cream you can buy at all grocery stores. Never got the appeal.

[Jeff Lebowski]

Yup. We used a Ben & Jerry’s recipe book. I could get some good flavors, but I could never get more than a smoothie-like consistency. I’m sure there’s a way to do it, but I got frustrated and we stopped doing it years ago.

My friends used to make commercial ice cream. They described the entire process and what they had to add to make it soft and creamy (including some kind of seaweed extract). People aren't going to be able to match that at home.

[Lost Student]

Homemade ribs suck. The best homemade ribs I have ever had were not as good as any premium ribs you can buy at all restaurants.

This is what you sound like. I'd say you guys just don't know what you're doing.

[Jeff Lebowski]

This is what you sound like. I'd say you guys just don't know what you're doing.

Haha. Touche'.

We are right though.

[Donuthole]

Haha. Touche'.

We are right though.

Creaminess is impacted by how fast it freezes, right? Which is why homemade can never be smooth like the commercial stuff: it's slow churned and then slow frozen. I love the flavor of homemade ice cream. But the texture just never quite gets there for me.

[Moliere]

I haven't made ice cream in decades since I remember it sucking, but I think a lot of the sucking is due to us wanting to use a shortcut method, which means a very poor base. Maybe I'll try the recipe above and see how it goes but it's hard to spend the time when I can just buy Blue Bell. I mean, I bought three half gallons of Blue Bell this morning for $5.95 a piece (homemade vanilla, choc chip cookie dough and moolenium crunch)

[Lost Student]

Creaminess is impacted by how fast it freezes, right? Which is why homemade can never be smooth like the commercial stuff: it's slow churned and then slow frozen. I love the flavor of homemade ice cream. But the texture just never quite gets there for me.

The recipe I've been following says to thoroughly chill the mixture before churning for this very reason. I've been making the mixture in the evening and chilling overnight.

We also make sure that the mixer bowl has been in the chest freezer (which is colder than our normal freezer) for at least 24 hours. The results have been good--no discernible ice crystals.

https://food52.com/blog/13333-5-comm...ow-to-fix-them

[Pelado]

My friends used to make commercial ice cream. They described the entire process and what they had to add to make it soft and creamy (including some kind of seaweed extract). People aren't going to be able to match that at home.

We taught (and baptized) a family in Argentina that produced commercial ice cream in their home. We tended to visit them just after our lunch break and they would invariably offer us free ice cream. Delicious.

[Surfah]

Haha. Touche'.

We are right though.

And I'd put some homemade ribs I've had up against any premium restaurant offering. I can't say the same for any homemade ice cream I've ever had.