How I make Ice Cream

Ok so awhile back I wrote about me making ice cream but I never really went into detail about what I do or how I do it. Well for my buddy Kirsten's sake I thought I would blog about HOW I actually make it and what I use. I'll try not to do a lot of cooking posts, but I have found that I'm living a more healthy lifestyle by making my own meals when I used to just buy it from a box.

I make my ice cream in a machine. I'll admit that much. I don't know many people who hand crank their ice cream much, but I remember doing that with my grandma and DANG it got hard after awhile. And then all the other stuff like rock salt and ice and yada yada.

So I use a Cuisinart Ice Cream & Sorbet Maker. I got it super cheap with coupons, store credits and some cash. They are not cheap I'll be honest. I don't know many Cuisinart items that are. BUT I did find 2 at the Goodwill the other day for under $15 and THAT is a steal. If you see one, grab it because the name alone is more then that cost.

Anyhoo, what I use in my ice cream to help set it is Junket. Its basically a thickener. I was reading somewhere that some people can also use Pudding Mix, but I'm not sure how much yet. But the Junket works well for me and its cheap. It comes in little tablets and you just mix it in. Junket can also be used to make cheese too if you are really wanting to go for it.

The Junket has recipes inside it that I use to make my ice cream, but I don't cook it on the stove like it recommends. I'd probably have more creamy ice cream if I did, but I have a bad habit of burning milk....

Here's my recipe: (makes about 2 quarts)

1 junket tablet

1 Tbs water

1/2 cup Sugar

1 1/2 cups Whole Milk

1 cup Heavy Cream

1 tsp Vanilla

That makes a vanilla base obviously & then I just mix in whatever I want. That is the recipe from the Junket box--not mine. You have to dissolve the tablet into the water, mix everything else together, add the junket/water, let sit for about 10 min and pour into your ice cream maker. Then voila--ice cream. I recommend you don't use anything but whole milk because if its something like soy (I've tried trust me) it doesn't set well and it tastes like that imitation vanilla milk stuff.

I like it and it has no corn syrup--well I think anyway. The junket tablet appears to be sugar free, but I could be wrong. I'm sure someone will write me and say the tablets are made from horse hooves or something terrible and then I'll have to find something else.

Try it--you'll like it! This recipe is actually for making ice cream in a 9x13 pan and then you scrape it out of the pan. So if you don't' have an ice cream maker you can still try it.