Tag: ice cream

Homemade ice-cream. Yum!

I tried two ice-creams recently. The first one, a cookies and cream ice-cream was a request from the children, it is their current favourite.  The other one was trying to reproduce a Maggie Beer ice-cream, a salted caramel chocolate ice-cream.

Also, let me tell you about the 5 min cheat ice-cream we can all make at home at the last minute and which works a treat!

One tip upfront: make sure your ice cream mix is very cold before churning, this will result in a smoother ice cream and will then be more enjoyable.  I use an ice-cream machine to churn the ice-cream. I find this method much more reliable!

Cookies and cream ice-cream

This is my kids current favourite.  Adults also love it.  This ice-cream is so simple, it is just a matter of mixing cream, milk, vanilla and sugar and it is ready to be churned! The cookies pieces are added afterwards, between churning and freezing.  Try it, it is worth it! Recipe HERE.

Salted caramel chocolate ice cream

This requires a bit more steps than the above but remains simple to make.  I like mine quite strong in chocolate. In the recipe HERE, I point out to a few adaptations to tastes.  I love the result: a rich complex chocolate ice-cream.

You can use the custard base of this recipe for a “plain” chocolate ice cream (don’t forget to add the cream to the custard base).

The 5 minutes berries ice-cream

It is more a sorbet than an ice cream. I have not tried adding some cream, it would be interesting to try. You will need a 500 g bag of frozen berries: mixed or raspberries or strawberries or what may be in your freezer. You will also need some sugar cane syrup or some icing sugar. And a blender. In the blender place the frozen berries and start blending.  If using sugar cane syrup, add until the right texture is reached. If using icing sugar, place three tablespoons of sieved icing sugar with the fruits and blend, adding a little water at the time to help with the consistency (also check if you need to add more sugar).  The liquid volume will be somewhere between 1/2 cup and 1 cup and will depend on the berries.

Serve immediately or place in the freezer for a little time if making an hour ahead or so.

 

Salted caramel chocolate ice-cream

A salted caramel chocolate ice-cream is one of my favourite ice-creams! The ice-cream is based on a chocolate custard.  In itself, that base makes a wonderful chocolate ice-cream.  There would be different ways to introduce the salted caramel into the chocolate ice-cream. This version allows for a liquid caramel which can just be poured into the chocolate custard.

This salted caramel chocolate ice-cream is both strong in chocolate flavour and salted caramel flavour. If you are after a milder chocolate taste, omit the cocoa. If you are after a light salted caramel, only use one teaspoon of salt.

Ingredients:
  • 500 mL of full cream milk
  • 6 egg yolks
  • 100 g of sugar
  • 150 g of dark cooking chocolate (70%)
  • 1 tablespoon of dutch cocoa
  • 300 cl of cream
  • good quality vanilla extract

For the salted caramel:

  • 120 g of sugar
  • 50 g of butter and 2 tablespoons of cream (a splash of cream)
  • 2 level teaspoons of salt

Method:
To  make the salted caramel (read this whole section before you start)
  1. Place the sugar in a thick bottom saucepan and heat up. Have the butter and  cream handy near you.
  2. When the sugar starts to melt and brown, shake the pan to ensure all of the sugar melts homogeneously.  The more you cook a caramel the bitter and less sugary it becomes. Here we are after a golden brown colour, which comes rather quickly.
  3. As soon as you have reached the desired colour, add the butter and cream and mix with a whisk away from the fire. The caramel has now stabilised. If the butter is not fully melted you can place the saucepan a few seconds over the hot plate.
  4. Add the salt and mix well.
To make the chocolate custard, the body of the ice-cream
  1. Heat the milk, chocolate, cocoa, vanilla and sugar in a saucepan. Stir from time to time to ensure the chocolate doesn’t burn at the bottom and all ingredients are well dissolved.
  2. Place the egg yolks in a large bowl and give them a good mix.
  3. As soon as the milk mixture is about to boil, remove from the heat and pour a little of it over the eggs while mixing.  Then pour the rest, mix and return to the hot saucepan.  There may be enough heat in the pan for your custard to thicken and coat the back of a spoon straight away. If not, place on low heat and keep mixing slowly until the custard is done.  This is the trickiest part, do not overdo it or it will become grainy.
  4. Add the salted caramel and mix well.
  5. Place the custard in a container with a lid, allow to cool at room temperature for an hour, then in the fridge overnight. Note that if it tastes a little too salty or sweet: you still have the cream to add the next day.
Churning
  1. Before churning the next day, add in the cream.
  2. Place in the ice-cream machine and churn for about 45 minutes or until ready.
  3. Transfer to a box and freeze. You can choose to add some shaved chocolate to the ice cream at this stage.

Enjoy your salter caramel chocolate ice-cream!

Cookies and cream ice-cream

This is a very simple recipe for cookies and cream ice-cream.  Mix and freeze! It is very important all your ingredients be cold to start with if you want to churn it on the day. If you have time, mix the ingredients (see recipe) and churn it the next day. I didn’t invent this cookies and cream ice-cream recipe, it comes from “Chew Out Loud“, here adapted for metric measures.

Note that I use an ice cream machine for making my ice-cream.

Makes about a one litre container.

Ingredients
  • 250 ml (1 cup) whole milk
  • 150 g (3/4 cup) of caster sugar
  • 500 mL of thickened cream (2 cups)
  • 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
  • 1 cup coarsely chopped Oreos

Note: this is quite sweet, you can reduce the sugar to 100 or 120g if you prefer it a little less sweet (I wouldn’tgo lower)

Method:
  1. In a large bowl combine together with a whisk, the milk, the cream, the vanilla and the sugar. Mexi well. Check the vanilla level for taste, adding a little bit if desired.
  2. If you have been using cold dairy ingredients, you can churn it straight away, else, allow it to cool down overnight in the fridge and churn the following day.
  3. Once churned (use your machine instruction), roughly cut the Oreos into small pieces (5 mm to 1 cm) and while transferring to the ice-cream container, mix the Oreos through. Make sure to keep a few of the broken cookies for the top!