Summer Is For Homemade Ice Cream

 

Is there anything better than homemade ice cream at a family dinner in the summer? Oh, and don't forget to check our other big ice cream post. Oh, and in addition to that, here are some other ice cream and sorbet recipes...here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

Easy Chocolate Ice Cream

Ingredients:

6 cups milk
3 large cans sweetened condensed milk
15 tablespoons cocoa

Directions:

In a large mixing bowl, combine milk and sweetened condensed milk.

Dissolve the cocoa in a bit of hot water.

Once dissolved, stir cocoa into the milk mixture until completely blended.

Pour ingredients into the freezer canister of your ice cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturer's instructions.

Do not fill the canister more than 2/3 full, as the mixture will expand during freezing.

Pour into a freezer safe container (or freeze in your canister, if you like), and place in freezer to allow ice cream to ripen. Ice cream will need 2-4 hours to ripen before it is ready to serve.

Source: I got this recipe out of my manual for my new ice cream maker. My old ice cream maker went kaput, so I got a new one--a Nostalgia Electrics Old Fashioned Ice Cream Maker. You can view the manual, and this recipe here. The recipe is on page 9.

Notes: At first, I thought I would describe this ice cream as tasting like a Frosty. However, that wasn't quite it...after thinking a little longer, I realized that it reminded me of a fudgesicle. Good stuff! My oldest son really loved this especially. It took around 40-45 minutes to thicken and freeze the ice cream, and at least 2 hours to allow the ice cream to ripen. If you eat it before ripening the ice cream, it will be more like a shake. In order for the ice cream to set up enough to be scoopable, it has to ripen in the freezer first.

 

Above: Easy Vanilla Ice Cream with blueberries mixed in.

Easy Vanilla Ice Cream

Ingredients:

6 cups heavy whipping cream
4 1/2 cups half and half (if adding mix-ins, use only 4 cups half and half)
2 1/4 cups sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons vanilla
Mix-ins, if desired (such as crushed Oreo cookies or mashed fruit such as raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, strawberries, peaches, etc.)

Directions:

Combine all ingredients in ice cream canister. (See notes below regarding mix-ins)

Do not fill canister more than 2/3 full as the mixture will expand during freezing.

Stir well until sugar has dissolved.

Follow manufacturer's instructions for freezing ice cream.

Pour into a freezer safe container (or freeze in your canister, if you like), and place in freezer to allow ice cream to ripen. Ice cream will need 2-4 hours to ripen before it is ready to serve.

Source: Again, I got this recipe out of my manual for my new ice cream maker.You can view the instruction manual here. The recipe is on page 9.

Notes: Vanilla ice cream on its own is to die for. However, I added mix-ins. I decreased the half and half to account for the extra mix-in ingredients.

For Cookies and Cream Ice cream, I added a full package of Oreos. I roughly crushed 1/3 of the package and added it to the cream mixture at the beginning of the freezing package. I then crushed the remainder of the package of Oreos and folded them in when it was time to ripen the ice cream. If you add Oreos at the beginning, it will turn your ice cream gray. So, if you don't want it to look that way, I would suggest crushing and folding in ALL of the Oreos at the very end. However, I like to mix in a little at the beginning because it infuses the ice cream with an Oreo flavor throughout. Go by your personal preference though.

For fruit ice cream, I would say to add about 1-2 cups of mashed fruit (depending on how fruity you want your ice cream) to the cream mixture at the beginning and then freeze. You might get a little fruit stuck to the paddle of the ice cream maker at the end of it, but that can easily be spooned back into the ice cream and folded in.

 

Above: I think raspberry ice cream is my all-time favorite. It just tastes so good!

 

Above: Blueberry ice cream is my husband's favorite. It is probably tied, for me, in second place with blackberry ice cream.

 

Above: Oooh...cookies and cream ice cream...yum.

Sopapilla Cheesecake Ice Cream

Ingredients:

1 pie crust (from a refrigerated pack of two, or from scratch

1 tablespoon granulated sugar

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon, divided

1 can sweetened condensed milk (fat-free or regular)

8 ounces cream cheese (reduced-fat or regular)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

12 ounces (one and a half 8-ounce containers) Cool Whip (fat-free, lite, or regular), or 2 cups of heavy whipping cream, whipped

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.

Mix granulated sugar and 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon in a small bowl. Unroll pie crust and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar. Press lightly with your hands so it sticks to the crust. Spray the crust lightly with cooking spray.

Bake crust for 8-12 minutes, or until light golden brown around the edges. Let cool completely before making ice cream.

Place cream cheese and sweetened condensed milk in a large bowl and mix with a hand mixer until smooth. Mix in vanilla and 1 teaspoon cinnamon. Fold in Cool Whip (or whipped cream).

Crumble cooled pie crust into small pieces and stir into ice cream mixture. You can reserve 1/4 of the pie crust to use as garnish, if you desire.

Place ice cream in a large resealable container and freeze for at least 4 hours (but overnight is better). Will keep in the freezer for up to one month.

Recipe notes: If you don't like Cool Whip, you can use fresh whipped cream instead. Beat 2 cups of cold heavy whipping cream until stiff peaks form. Sweeten with granulated sugar, to taste. Once cream is whipped, fold into the ice cream mixture in place of the Cool Whip.

Source: We found this on a site called Crazy for Crust. You can find it here.

Notes: I really, really liked this one. We didn't go the light route, and we used regular sweetened condensed milk and whipped cream (instead of the Cool Whip). Holy decadent, Batman. This was good.