Summer = Ice Cream

by Emi

Like any person who isn’t lactose intolerant or has an allergy to eggs (I’m looking at you Emily), we associate summer with ice cream. This year I get to associate summer with making my own ice cream. I was recently inspired to start making my own when I found a copy at work of The Ciao Bella Book of Gelato and Sorbetto, by F.W. Pearce and Danilo Zecchin (I work in a building with tons of free books everywhere, and yes, it’s awesome). So, as a result for my birthday the other week I received a Cuisinart Ice Cream maker from my friend Liv.

Photo courtesy of Random House/Clarkson Potter

My first attempt was at the stracciatella gelato, which is a classic Italian flavor of vanilla with chocolate that is poured when melted into the frozen gelato freezing the chocolate in swirls. I followed the Ciao Bella instructions for the plain base (just milk, heavy cream, sugar and 4 egg yolks) and the Cuisinart instructions, later adding the vanilla before churning, but the ice cream didn’t freeze properly. After the allotted 25-30 mins the ice cream was still mush. As a result I finished the freezing in the freezer and the texture came out a little icy, but the flavor was really nice. The way the maker works is you freeze the bowl that the ice cream churns in. It recommends that it freeze for a minimum of 6 hours to overnight, and that the base sit in the refrigerator for the same. On my second attempt I made espresso flavored gelato. This time I let both the bowl and the base freeze/refrigerate for the full recommended time and it came out great. After churning it came out a nice creamy texture, with a great espresso flavor.

Photo courtesy of Ben & Jerry's

My last attempt was a bit more adventurous courtesy of my friend Mary Anne. Apparently back in the day, Ben & Jerry’s had a peanut butter and cookie dough flavor that Mary Anne has been dreaming of since they discontinued it in middle school. So on Saturday we recreated that flavor, and I have to say it was awesome. Again we made the plain base, but after the full refrigeration time we blended in half a cup of organic peanut butter. Also we made an egg less chocolate chip cookie dough, this way we weren’t eating raw eggs in our ice cream. The final product was really nice. Not too peanut buttery, and some tasty cookie dough chunks. The only problem was the chocolate chips I had were huge. Next time I’d use smaller chips.

I’m looking forward to experimenting more with my machine. You have to do some planning in advance when making gelato or ice cream. It's not really a sponaetous confection. To make it you need at least a night in advance, but the prep work is really easy. The only thing you definitely need is the four basic ingredients of milk, cream, sugar, eggs , an ice cream maker, and a cooking termometer, which doesn’t have to break your bank. You can get a cheap ice cream maker for around $30. Some require salt or ice cubes for freezing, mine you just have to freeze the bowl. In future I will try taking some pictures of my final products. My new original flavor idea is Strawberry Shortcake, but it would be strawberry ice cream with real strawberries and shortcake cookie crumbs in it rather than regular shortcake, which I don’t think would stand-up in the ice cream. Now that’s its strawberry season, I think it will be the perfect next flavor. If your interested in trying a Ciao Bella recipie click here for chocolate gelato.