Home Made Ice Cream Adventures

        Just a warning that this is a superlong post (which is mostly full of photos anyway). I've been saving all my ice cream photos waiting for the moment when I felt inspired to write about ice cream. I can't believe it's been just a over two months since I started this blog. It was so much easier to just mass upload my photos onto facebook before. Now I have to think of what to write to go with the photos. It does give me a bit of "creativity" though I really do suck at creative writing, and when I am writing creatively I need to constantly go over and edit and re-read because that's how bad I am. Anyway... this long blog post will make up for all the days I have been too tired to blog.

        I have always wanted an ice cream machine (long before MasterChef mind you). I have tried to make ice cream a few times before without one but because I was too lazy with the hand churning it always ended up more of an iced block of flavoured cream more than anything - in a way it was probably similar to your parfaits. So March 2009 I finally got what I wanted - Ryan bought me this machine from Krups which was a bit of a belated Valentine's present. The thing I didn't realise was, it was missing a part when I went to use it for the first time, so Ryan had to call the store and it took 2 weeks for me to get it back. The first flavour which I attempted with my ice cream machine came out of a book called The Ice Cream Bible which Ryan bought me. Crunchy Cinnamon Toast ice cream was such a cool sounding flavour but not all the ice creams I've made were from this book (some were my own tweaks to original recipes). However after making the cream mixture and pouring it into the tub, I realised I was missing my paddle so had to pour it into a container to freeze and churn by hand. I didn't churn it quite enough so it was still a bit hard but tasted awesome.

 

        As Ryan is such a Lychee fanatic that is the flavour I make as soon as I get my machine back. It seems to be that Ryan and I are the only two eating all 2 litres of Lychee ice cream. I think there was too much Lychee juice/syrup so it didn't churn quite as well. Ryan also added the chopped lychee straight into the cream mix rather than leaving it out for me to mix in when the ice cream was almost finished churning. Even though it wasn't the most perfect Ryan still loved it.

        Because the sibblings arn't into "weird" flavours I also make a batch of something safe - Nutella ice cream (okay so I cheated and used the Nutino we had in the cupboard but same difference seriously). Served here with an ice cream wafer.

        I decided to sandwich the Nutino ice cream with some ice cream wafers and had the yummiest ice cream sandwich ever. After making this the ice cream maker bucket remains in the freezer for a while before I pull it out again.

        Okay so it's November 2009 and strawberries are in season and are CHEAP. You should know Ryan and I LOVE strawberries too. Cheap in season strawberries = Strawberries and Cream ice cream! I especially hate faux strawberry flavouring but was so excited to make my own all natural coloured and flavoured strawberry ice cream.

        We couldn't wait to eat so pulled the ice cream out of the freezer a little prematurely which meant it hadn't quite set yet and more of a soft serve consistency. It was sooo good to eat just as it was. Served here with ice cream wafers, sliced fresh strawberry, corinthian wafer and a Rafaello ball.

        On an ice cream roll I decide to make a White Chocolate and Roasted Macadamia ice cream. However, ice cream makers will not work during days of extreme heat. It was one of Sydney's really hot November days and the frozen bucket just melted at too fast of a rate to freeze the cream mix so I ended up churning it by hand. I made sure I kept an eye on it and as soon as it was slushy I would pull it out and mix it up. I ended up with some blisters on my fingers from using a metal spoon to churn. The result was still pretty good even without the machine. Ice cream is served here with strawberry, vanilla corinthian wafer and a flake.

        White Chocolate and Roasted Macadamia ice cream again served in a wafer basket with fresh strawberries.

        White Chocolate and Roasted Macadamia ice cream served with a warmed home made chocolate brownie.

 

        So I didn't really take photos of the process of making ice cream before but seeing as I missed taking photos of my first Crunchy Cinnamon Toast ice cream I thought this should make up for it when I make it again a second time in January. Photo above is of the cinnamon infused cream mixture after it's been sitting in the fridge overnight.

 

        These are my Crunchy Cinnamon Toasts a.k.a cinnamon croutons. These are just slices of bread cut into small pieces which are then fried in a butter/oil and cinnamon/sugar mixture.

 

        The cream mixture beginning to get churned.

 

You can see that it has started to thicken up now.

 

Cinnamon "toasts" are now in for mixing.

 

        The ice cream doesn't completely freeze in the process. You need to put it into a container and freeze it before it is ready to be eaten. As home made ice cream does not have as much air and emulsifiers mixed into it, it's a little harder so once it's frozen it just needs to be left at room temperature for a couple of minutes before you should attempt to scoop it. It will be softer and easier to scoop and you won't end up with bent spoons.

 

        My failed macarons made awesome accompaniments for my Cinnamon Toast ice cream. And who knew a bottle of Cottees chocolate topping would come in handy ay ;).

         Asian inspired ice cream flavour - Pandan and Coconut. I just added pandan flavouring to an egg based cream mixture and mixed through some dessicated coconut once the mixture had tickened.

        This was the most addictive ice cream to eat. Served with some toasted sesame seeds and crushed roasted peanuts this was the ultimate dessert. The chocolate swirls were more for decoration purposes.

        Once all the Pandan ice cream had been eaten I decided to make a White Chocolate Brownie ice cream. I had made White Chocolate Brownies and there were left over pieces (the overcooked edge pieces which turned out to be the best tasting almost caramel tasting bits). This was made with just a classic vanilla ice cream mix to which I added some chopped brownies to. I'd wanted to make a brownie ice cream for ages and this one was quite yummy with the home made brownies. It is also the last batch I've made and now it's just getting too cold for ice cream though perfect weather to operate the small ice cream machine.