Airborn Magazine
By: Kira Vermond
The scoop on homemade ice cream
Ask most people what they
think of when they hear the words "ice cream" and they'll probably wax poetic
about sweltering summer days and sloppy cones dripping trails on sidewalks. Or
maybe they'll admit to midnight binges where it's just them, an open freezer, a
spoon -- and a bucket of Chunky Monkey.
Ask me what I think of?
Sore biceps.
Ever since I can remember,
my family has always made ice cream from scratch the old fashioned way. The
ingredients: Cream. Sugar. Eggs. Flavoring. The equipment: A White Mountain
hand-crank ice cream freezer. Lots of crushed ice and salt. At least three
people to take turns on the crank. A few little kids to sit on the freezer to
keep it from traveling across the lawn. Enough spoons for the crowd.
Sound complicated? It's not
once you've got the technique down. Making your own ice cream is a great summer
activity to keep the kids busy -- but it's also a darned easy way to impress
your friends. And while making your own ice cream might cost a little more --
alright, a lot more once you consider the equipment price -- the end result is
most definitely worth it. There are no chemicals, artificial flavours (unless
you add them) or that weird spongy texture once the ice cream begins to melt.
Instead, you have a concoction that actually tastes like the sum of its parts.
Beyond the obvious cream,
sugar and eggs, coming up with your own flavours is one of the great thrills of
making ice cream. You can add cookie dough, pieces of chocolate bar, mint
flavouring or even honeycomb. But in my humble opinion, peach is the queen bee
of all flavours. It's subtle, sweet and exactly the kind of refreshment you
need when summer heat spikes.
Finding the right freezer
can be a bit of a head scratcher, however. There are so many on the market to
choose from. Want to make ice cream the traditional way? Buy the ice and salt
variety. But you don't necessarily have to crank the freezer by hand -- most
manufacturers also offer electric versions. Just plug them in and in 20 minutes
you've got dessert.
If you don't want to deal
with ice or salt, you might want to try one of the gel canister ice cream
makers. You simply put them in the freezer for a few hours, pour in the recipe
and in less than a half hour, you're done. Depending on which route you go,
prices range from about $50 to more than $200 (Cdn).
Making ice cream the
traditional way means having a hefty supply of ice and salt on hand. It also
means thinking ahead and cooking up the recipe at least three hours in advance
so it has time to cool and "age." Aged ice cream mixture whips up better than
newly cooked blends and you'll have a lighter, creamer dessert.
Place the ice cream mixture
in the inner canister nestled in the bucket. Make sure the ice cream mixture
does not come up above the halfway mark, as it will expand. Drop crushed ice
around the canister and top with salt to create a brine solution. The ratio is
approximately five cups of ice to one cup of salt. Repeat two more times so you
have three layers. Fasten the crank and off you go, refilling the bucket with
ice and salt as it melts.
When the ice cream becomes
too stiff to crank -- and trust me, you'll know it when you feel it -- it's done.
Move the soft ice cream into a plastic container and place in the freezer to
harden.
Why salt? Salt lowers the
temperature around the canister to lower than 27 degrees F -- the point at which
ice cream freezes. With a five to one ratio of ice to salt, the brine
temperature should remain around eight to 12 degrees F.
Science aside, the best
news about homemade ice cream? It lasts about a month in the freezer. Now
that's a lot of late night binging.
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