Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker

[weezy]

On 7/29/2020 at 2:40 PM, Pool Boy said:

I personally find no reason to ever make corn ice cream.

That said, I generally have very god results with Jeni's recipes. I have not made any in a couple of years, but I vaguely remember there is a tiny amount f basic cream cheese in some of the recipes - I do not recall ever doing a corn starch slurry.

What was the source of the recipe - we have her book on this that us about 10-12 years old, not sure if they ever made another one or more recipe cooks or not.

I've got the book and used the recipe without riffing on it at all.  

But in other experiments, I made another peanut butter ice cream, using a condensed milk & cream base and peanut powder, and that turned out much closer to what I was hoping for.  I think I'll increase the amount of PB powder next time, or maybe layer in a straight peanut butter swirl as I'm packing it up.  

[KeithA]

Just finished making blackberry stracciatella ice cream using B&J's recipe for blueberry (with adjustments for sugar). This has been one of our go-to favorites for years as we usually pick a mass quantity of blackberries for jam each summer and use a pint for ice cream. After I macerate the blackberries with sugar and a bit of lemon juice, I usually mash them, pour the liquid into the sweet cream #1 base and then later add the solids when pouring into the machine. It comes out great with a mostly uniform purple color and light creamy blackberry flavor with a few chunks of berry bites. Once the churn has started to set, I add dark chocolate shavings or small chunks.

This time, after macerating I blitzed it with an immersion blender and pour the whole thing for churning and melted semi-sweet chocolate chips and drizzled in for stracciatela. I think it'll be pretty similar to the past but we really liked the stracciatella mix of mini and bigger thin chunks so went this way. It is freezing now, can't wait for a scoop soon.

[weezy]

Made a basil ice cream using the B&J base and steeping a big sprig of fresh basil in the cream.  It is marvelous with fresh peaches.

[KeithA]

13 hours ago, weezy said:

Made a basil ice cream using the B&J base and steeping a big sprig of fresh basil in the cream.  It is marvelous with fresh peaches.

That is a great idea. I'll have to try that next. Just filled up my freezer with more blackberry stracciatella.

[KeithA]

Despite my continued devotion to B&J's recipes, I found I didn't really like their main chocolate recipe that calls for unsweetened chocolate. Instead I've started making Philadelphia style chocolate ice cream where there are no eggs and you use a mix of cocoa powder and melted chocolate. The cocoa powder makes for a rich taste and the melted chocolate balances it out to have a good chocolate taste that isn't too bitter. I normally use semi-sweet chips for the melted chocolate but sometimes throw in a quarter amount of dark chocolate for a dark flavor. Seems to be a winner with everyone so far.

Tonight I made a new recipe in honor of Rosh Hashana where we traditionally eat apples dipped in honey. I adapted this recipe for Apples & Honey ice cream from Chozen ice cream brand - https://www.bonappetit.com/entertaining-style/holidays/article/make-apples-and-honey-ice-cream-for-rosh-hashanah

I used my tried and true B&J sweet cream base #1, but followed this recipe for caramelized honey apples with some vanilla extract added. Unlike in the recipe above, I forgot to add vanilla to the ice cream base but I think I like it better this way. The honey flavor is more pronounced and less muted in competition with the vanilla. Not too difficult of a recipe, but the extra steps to carmelize the apples and then pureed some of them probably will mean this will be a once a year holiday recipe.

[weezy]

had some cream and milk I wanted to use up, but it turned out I was low on sugar.  So I used brown sugar and made a batch of ice cream using a tempered B&J base to which I added about 1/3 cup natural cocoa, 1 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp cayenne, and 1 tsp fresh ground black cardamom.  I'm calling it Bollywood chocolate.  The fresh cardamom really sings with the chocolate, but it's so strong it drowned out the cinnamon.  I would reduce it to 1/2 tsp in future batches.  Otherwise, I think it rocks.

[weezy]

made a variation of the Bollywood chocolate using cream and coconut milk.  Extremely rich, dense stuff.  It would make excellent fudge pops.

[KeithA]

I didn't realize that September was my ice cream making month, but apparently it is based on my prior posts. Recently, made lemon verbena ice cream (Alice Water's custard recipe) which per Weezy's comment above on basil ice cream went great with peaches. Also made B&J's plum ice cream but pureed the macerated fruit and then drizzled in warm chocolate for stracciatella effect.  However, I failed to freeze the ice cream tub for long enough (I did about 7 hours but I usually go overnight) and well the ice cream base never solidified in the tub. Nevertheless, I poured the liquid into a container and froze it. The end result was meh - it is ice cream but very icy and not so creamy.  Next up tomorrow is smores at the kids' request - I made vanilla base and add in chocolate chips, crushed graham crackers and mini marshmallows. Already put the tub in the freezer - trying to learn my lesson.

I also again for RH made caramelized apple honey ice cream using the online but apparently defunct Chozen ice cream recipe I mention last year. It turned out even better this time, when I used the B&J vanilla base with the caramel honey apple mixture per the recipe. It was really good and got eaten fast.

[Tweaked]

I've never had much luck with my Cuisinart machine. 

I'm now a firm believer in the no-churn method using a base of heavy cream and condensed milk.  

[dracisk]

A friend randomly sent me a Cuisinart ice cream machine when I was pregnant in 2013 and I used it a couple of time, but then, well, I had a newborn/infant/toddler and the thing sat dormant in a cupboard for many years. I resuscitated it this summer and made a simple strawberry ice cream and then a chocolate mint ice cream with steeped mint leaves from our backyard. Both were quite tasty despite the fact I used half and half in place of heavy cream in both recipes.

I came into some peanut butter powder this summer and our basil plants are quite prolific, so I might try peanut butter and (separately) basil ice cream based on posts above. Thanks for the ideas!!

[KeithA]

S'more ice cream turned out great. I think the issue was really not allowing the tub to freeze overnight. I didn't even chill the base much, just whipped up eggs and sugar then tossed in cream and milk cold from fridge. Immediately poured based into ice cream maker (I took tub out of freezer at last minute). I crushed the graham crackers to tiny bits or crumbs and swirled it all into the almost fully churned vanilla base and then added lots of mini-marshmallows and chocolate chips (regular sized). It has been enjoyed all weekend since making it Saturday and it is already almost gone despite getting almost 2 full quarts. For a 30-40 minute project where 25-30 minutes is simply letting the machine churn (albeit with 1 day advance planning to freeze tub) in the morning, having homemade ice cream ready for dessert that night is great.

I'll have the check out the no churn method. Never tried that.