Making Ice Cream

It was really warm out today, and I was craving a frozen treat. DH's favorite food is ice cream, and since Father's Day is this weekend, it seemed a perfect time to make my first attempt at homemade ice cream.

We have an ice-cream maker that's never been used since we got it about 5 years ago. So the girls and I decided to give it a try. We bought whole-milk yogurt, cream, rock salt and a few other necessities. The kids were beside themselves with excitement--ice cream and helping me cook are both high on their list of favorite things.



I did an internet search and collected some interesting-looking recipes to try. Eventually we settled on chocolate frozen yogurt and vanilla ice cream. Since we had leftover chicken fruit salad for dinner (delicious!), I had some cooking energy left tonight. Unfortunately, by the time I got ready to actually start cooking it was time for the kids to be in bed.

To save time, we decided to multi-task. While DH put the kids to bed and worked on laundry, I cooked up the chocolate custard for the frozen yogurt. It was a little more work than I expected, but already it was starting to look and taste delicious. While it was cooling, I browned 6 lbs. of hamburger to freeze for quick and easy meals. Meanwhile I was reading the directions and getting the ice cream maker ready. It seemed like a recipe for disaster in my current state of clumsiness and forgetfulness, but I decided it was worth the risk.

Halfway through the hamburger-frying, I managed to blend the yogurt with the cooled chocolate custard and start the mixture freezing. I did slightly burn a pan or two of the hamburger (I had two burners going and forgot to turn off one when I meant to), but overall it worked ok since hamburger doesn't have to be stirred constantly.

After getting the last of the hamburger labeled and in the freezer, the chocolate yogurt was done. It was really quite good--creamy and chocolatey, with just the right amount of tanginess that makes really good frozen yogurt. I took a break and put my feet up while sampling it. Mmmm, I could get hooked on this very easily.

I was going to make the custard for the vanilla ice cream, chill it overnight and then freeze it tomorrow. But it seemed such a shame to waste all that perfectly good ice and rock salt. So, against my better judgement, I decided to stay up and make it tonight. Besides, who can sleep with this much heartburn anyway? (This pregnancy has been by far the worst of the three in the reflux/heartburn department--I hope that doesn't mean this baby will have worse reflux than the other two did.)

As I stood at the stove stirring and stirring once more, I was especially grateful for the cushioned kitchen rug DH and the girls got me for Mother's Day. (Oh, yeah, I'd better figure out what we're giving DH for Father's Day this weekend.)

I did scald the custard just a TINY bit, and ended up with some lumps when I added the eggs and then cooked it too long. But it tasted good. The recipe didn't call for it, but I whipped the cream before adding it to the egg mixture. That seemed to make the ice cream a bit fluffier.

All in all, there's definitely room for improvement, but both DH and I agreed it was pretty good for a first try.

Now if only my kitchen would clean itself.

It looks like a disaster area, and I have company coming in the morning. Between my aching feet and back, and my body informing me not-too-subtly (with contractions) that I've overdone it already tonight, I decided my best bet was to put up my feet a bit and then go to bed.

Hopefully I'll be able to get the kitchen and family room looking presentable by the time my guest arrives tomorrow.

If not, at least I can serve her some homemade ice cream.