Churn Baby Churn

So we get to the frozen desserts episode just after the 100 degrees of summer and now we’re in the 50’s of fall 🙂 Gotta love Vegas!

Who doesn’t like Ice Cream? At 22 plus quarts a year per person America is the frozen desert nation. But how do we make it on our own at home?

The trick to making frozen deserts is the right amount of sugar. Too much and you’ll need an ice pick to eat and too little you’ll end up with a syrupy mess. Since most of us probably won’t have a sucrometer on hand, we’ll need to measure the sugar by weight. Scoopable Ice Cream is roughly 7 oz of sugar to every 16 oz of liquid by weight, 30% sugar. I don’t have a kitchen scale, so luckily all the measurements in these recipes have been weighed and then measured out. The kitchen scale is on my wish list, so I will get it eventually.

Adding preserves to your frozen desert is a good idea for a few reasons, you can count it as sugar in the recipe tablespoon for tablespoon, it’s a great way to introduce flavor and pectin, which makes the ices smoother.

Remember the mixtures need to be cold before adding to ice cream maker.

Ice Cream makers seem to be pretty standard, unless you’re looking at the one you roll around on the floor yourself. Alton recommends getting an electric one that has an an automatically reversing motor and turns out a quart in about half an hour. I do not have an Ice Cream maker, but Len’s aunt was nice enough to let me borrow hers. I’ve been eyeballing those KitchenAid Ice Cream maker attachments 🙂

Proper storage of your frozen desserts is important. Every time you take a Sorbet or Ice Cream out of the freezer some of the smaller ice crystals are going to melt. When it re-freezes it gets grainier and leathery. So try storing batches in several small containers.

Seriously Vanilla Ice Cream
(Printable Recipe)

Ingredients

* 2 cups half-and-half
* 1 cup whipping cream (not heavy whipping cream, you’ll make butter before ice cream)
* 1 cup minus 2 tablespoons sugar
* 2 tablespoons peach preserves (not jelly)
* 1 vanilla bean, split and scraped

Directions

Combine all ingredients (including the bean and its pulp) in a large saucepan and place over medium heat. Attach a frying or candy thermometer to inside of pan. (see note below) Stirring occasionally, bring the mixture to 170 degrees F. Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly. Remove the hull of the vanilla bean, pour mixture into lidded container and refrigerate mixture overnight to mellow flavors and texture.

Freeze mixture in ice cream freezer according to unit’s instructions. The mixture will not freeze hard in the machine. Once the volume has increased by 1/2 to 3/4 times, and reached a soft serve consistency, spoon the mixture back into a lidded container and harden in the freezer at least 1 hour before serving.

NOTE: If you do not have a thermometer, bring the mixture just barely to a simmer. As soon as you see a bubble hit the surface, remove it from the heat. Do not let it boil.
Recipe Courtesy of FoodNetwork.com

This was great! Creamy and delicious! I love when you can see the little specs of vanilla bean in the ice cream. I Couldn’t contain myself from trying a bite or 12 before taking the picture. Len wasn’t too happy with it, not because it wasn’t good, but because it wasn’t chocolate.

Coffee Granita
(Printable Recipe)

Ingredients

* 2 cups lukewarm espresso or strong black coffee
* 1/2 cup sugar
* 2 tablespoons coffee flavored liqueur
* 1 teaspoon orange or lemon zest

Directions

Combine all ingredients and stir until sugar melts. Pour mixture into 9 by 13-inch metal pan and place on level shelf in freezer for half an hour. (Mixture should only come about 1/4-inch up the side of the pan.) Remove and use a dinner fork to scrape any ice crystals that have formed on the side or bottom of the pan. Return to freezer and repeat scraping every 20 to 30 minutes for 3 to 4 hours. Once mixture is thoroughly frozen, fluff with a fork and allow flakes to “dry” in freezer another half hour before serving. When served, the granita should look like a fluffy pile of dry brown crystals.

Scoop into goblets and top with barely sweetened whipped cream, add additional citrus zest if desired.
Recipe Courtesy of FoodNetwork.com

This was good as well. Very different from what I’ve had before. It had a great strong coffee flavor with a nice sweetness and citrus. It was so light and fluffy. I will be making this again.

Strawberry Sorbet
(Printable Recipe)

Ingredients

* 1 cup sugar
* 1 cup strawberry preserves
* 1 lemon, zested and juiced
* 1 lime, zested and juiced
* 4 cups lime flavored club soda or seltzer
* Kosher salt

Directions

Combine sugar, preserves and 1 cup of the soda in a medium saucepan and stir over low heat until sugar and preserves are melted. Add citrus juice and zest. Stir in the remaining soda, move to a clean, lidded container and chill thoroughly, 2 to 3 hours.

*Note cold numbs the taste buds on the tongue so make sure it’s strongly flavored.

Turn mixture in ice cream maker per maker’s instructions or until mixture reaches the consistency of a firm slush. Return mixture to lidded container and harden in freezer 1 hour before serving.

If sorbet is to be held frozen for longer than 2 hours, move from freezer to refrigerator for about half an hour before serving. If you’d like a more assertive sorbet, double the amount of citrus zest.

This was suppose to be a Key Lime Sorbet, but after checking out countless stores, I could not find any Key Lime preserves anywhere, so I opted for strawberry.
Recipe Courtesy of FoodNetwork.com

I was really sad when I couldn’t find the key lime preserves because I love lime! All I did was substitute the key lime preserves with strawberry preserves and left the rest of the recipe the same. The strawberry was really yummy and I would recommend it if you can’t find key lime preserves because still had a nice lime flavor in the background and a great tartness to it, which I love. I have no idea who took the bites out of it 🙂