After a marathon trip to the giant Goodwill downtown, I returned home with a Sunbeam ice cream maker, brand spankin' new and still in the original package with bits and pieces still in plastic bags. I was excited that I only spent $15 for it, but after some research found it's only $20 on Amazon. Oh, well. I lived in the moment and have already reaped the benefits!
No pictures, because I was so excited that I forgot to pull out my camera. On the way home from Goodwill I did some Googling for Alton Brown's ice cream recipes, but decided I needed instant gratification and didn't want to use 8 eggs. Maybe some day, but for now, I made Easy Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream from the All Recipes site. It turned out FABULOUS. I have found it really hard to not eat just that for dinner every night that it has been in my freezer. I definitely recommend it.
Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream
Adapted from All Recipes
2 cups 2% milk
2 cups heavy cream
1 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp peppermint extract
1 cup miniature semi-sweet chocolate chips
In large bowl, combine all ingredients except chocolate until the sugar has dissolved. If not cold, store in refrigerator for 10 minutes to 2 hours until cold. If you like your mint ice cream unnaturally green, add drops of green food coloring now.
Pour into ice cream maker and freeze according to manufacturers instructions. After about 15 minutes of freezing, add the chocolate chips. Once ice cream has thickened, about 25 minutes more (40 total), spoon into air tight container and freeze for 2 hours.
A couple days later, I remembered I had some strawberries left in the fridge from making Strawberry Lemon Marmalade. And I knew I had some greek yogurt, so obviously I had to make Strawbery Froyo. Obviously. Sometimes things just fall into place and you have to follow. It's fate. I was meant to make froyo.
The recipe called for pureed strawberries, but I decided I would rather have some chunks of berries, so I mashed them with a potato masher instead. Recipe also called for fat free sweetened condensed milk, but I think that's a crime against nature (and I'd never seen it in the store and had full fat in the cupboard). And, my final modification, I happened to have drank the last of my fat free milk in cereal that morning, so I substituted some of roomie's fat-free lactose-free milk. It worked great. If I was making a non-berry froyo I might have tried almond milk, but decided plain strawberry was what fate wanted.
Strawberry Froyo
Adapted from All Recipes
2 cups fat free greek yogurt
2 cups mashed strawberries
1 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk
1 cup fat free milk
3 tsp vanilla extract
In a large bowl, combine all ingredients. Pour into ice cream maker and freeze according to manufacturers instructions. Place in air tight container in the freezer for at least 2 hours to ripen. Allow to sit out 30-40 minutes before serving to soften.
This turned out to be a great basic froyo recipe. It's a wee bit icy, but I'm a-ok with that for how much like breakfast it is (aka pseudo-healthy). Next time I might try just making plain froyo and throwing in things like brownie chunks or cookie dough. Maybe some chocolate and caramel swirls.
Instead of vanilla extract, I used vanilla paste in all these. What is vanilla paste, you ask? I'm not positive, but I'm pretty sure it's pure vanilla with vanilla seeds in it. It's a thick sauce, and it made my ice cream look super gourmet with little vanilla seeds floating around. I highly suggest it... but only if you can find it on sale for cheap at Ross like I did....
No comments:
Post a Comment