Homemade Ice Cream

Ice cream is the modern descendant of chilled egg custards. Although most of us are used to ice cream as something you just go and get from the freezer section, it can be fun and delicious to make your own homemade ice cream! And let's not forget, with more and more people needing to watch their sugars, avoid allergens or limit their dairy, making your own ice cream (or a reasonable facsimile) might be your better option.

Many ice cream recipes are good to use for homemade popsicles too! All you need to do it put the mixture into your ice pop molds instead of into an ice cream maker and freeze, and in just an hour or two you'll have lots of single-serving size treats!

No ice cream machines needed!

If all you have is several pounds of ice and a good plastic bag, you can make a batch of simple ice cream in a bag.

Time: Approx. 40 minutes

Ingredients:

3 to 4 lbs ice (10+ cups)

1/2 C table salt or 1 C kosher salt

1 C milk

1 C heavy cream

1/2 C sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1. Put the ice into a large bowl (glass or plastic), cover with salt and stir.

2. In another bowl, combine milk, cream, sugar, vanilla and a pinch of salt together until everything is dissolved. Pour mix into sealable 1-gallon freezer bag, remove as much air as you can and seal shut.

3. Place a wide plastic bowl with a lid on a towel. Fill bowl halfway with ice. Put freezer bag on ice and flatten. Cover bag with ice, leaving zipper edge sticking out. Put cover on bowl. Let the bag sit for approx 15 minutes, shake it occasionally to settle melting ice.

4. Pour off the covering ice into another bowl. Lift bag out by edge and lay on a towel. Cover ice cream baggie with second towel and gently knead for about a minute to mix liquid and frozen contents.

5. Put bag back in freezer bowl, repack with ice and cover again for 15 more minutes.

6. Take bag out of ice bath, towel off brine. Ice cream is ready to serve, or it can be stored in the freezer until later. Makes approx one pint.

If you live off-the-grid or if you like the old-fashioned way of doing things, you might prefer getting a hand-cranked ice cream machine. This is how ice cream was made before electric appliances were invented to do the job.

The dairy products you choose determine the character of the ice cream you make. The variances in butter fat content will sway the texture from icy with light crystals to heavy and silky. Use the best quality ingredients and you'll automatically be on the way to producing a superior artisan product.

• Low-fat milk - one or two percent milk will work okay in modern ice cream mixers for making ice cream, but it definitely produces a fluffier texture, and it can be grainy when used in old-fashioned mixers which take longer to freeze the mix.
• Whole milk - makes a nice quality ice cream all by itself.
• Buttermilk - substitute for 1/2 the milk. Creates a tangy flavor and rich texture.
• Chocolate milk - you can make chocolate ice cream just by using a good quality chocolate milk instead of regular milk.
• Light cream - substitute for 1/2 the milk. Creates a super rich, gourmet ice cream.

A battle of the classics, the ultimate ice cream flavor showdown! If you could only pick one, which would it be...?

Vanilla or Chocolate?