I Haz Ice Scream!

We have regained control of our kitchen again and one of the things I wanted to do most was break out the ice cream machine.

Do your ice cream dance to this!

We received the ice cream maker as a gift and I wanted to open it and use it the moment I got it, but our freezer was tiny and (frankly) it sucked. I put the machine aside, knowing that I would replace the fridge, but other priorities got in the way.

I put it aside but I longed to play with it. I can be incredibly patient but this was torture!

To prepare for the day when the ice cream machine and I were to have our first date, I started collecting frozen dessert links. Some of these do not require a machine and many are for non-dairy, vegan, gluten-free, and every variation you can imagine:

Click here to go to the Pinterest board

With a new fridge in the house and the threat of death by snowmageddon, I scoured through dozens of homemade ice cream recipes and tried out my hand with a strawberry ice cream.

My first try was a complete disaster. It was entirely too sweet. It was gross. The less said about it, the better.

My second try was a chocolate ice cream and the Matriarch and one of the kids declared it both delicious and a success.

I combined about three different recipes and concocted a recipe of my own (given the ingredients at hand). It was an educated guess and it paid off. The result was rich and chocolaty, it had a slightly piquant finish that lingered on the tongue, and was well worth the ice cream dance!

Homemade Chocolate Ice Cream

1 pint heavy cream

1 cup chocolate syrup

1 can condensed milk

¼ teaspoon ground 

• Chill all wet ingredients.
• In a bowl, mix all ingredients until fully incorporated.
• Churn for 20-30 minutes until it reaches a soft serve texture.
• Freeze for at least one hour.
•  Serve.

The process could not be simpler. Technically, I should have churned the cream mixture first and added the chocolate syrup in the last five minutes. Again, I took a shot that it would work because the syrup did not sufficiently affect the viscosity of the mixture.

Next time I make chocolate ice cream, I’m adding cayenne pepper and either chocolate chips or crushed candy canes for a minty finish.

The next project will be an orange sherbet. 

Eventually, I want to try a Neapolitan sherbet too. The kid wants me to make a red bean ice cream and a green tea gelato. My dream is to recreate Cherry Garcia (I want to make the frozen yogurt but Mom requested the ice cream version).

I continue to dance the “I haz ice scream!” dance. (That GIF is so, so wrong!)