Ice Cream without a maker!!

Okay - I realize that sometimes I'm a little behind the times...like well, didn't get a smart phone till last December (and I was kicking and screaming, let me tell you!) and don't necessarily pick up on the latest cooking trends, even though I like to cook.  ;)

But I discovered over the 4th weekend, that you really can make ice cream without an ice cream freezer and have it taste MARVELOUS!  I tell you, it was an eye opener!!

First time we really tried it was for Father's Day.  My hubby loves carrot cake, and my daughter makes it every year for his bday.  Well, she usually tries to make it for father's day too, but this year was just TOO hot, so we thought, hey, why not make it into an ice cream?  It was a little too sweet for me, but he liked it.  Unfortunately, I didn't take any photos of it...sorry guys.  sigh.  You'd think I'd have the camera hanging around my neck, lol.

So anyway, for the 4th, I tried 2 ice creams.  One was my family's traditional, root beer, and the other had to be chocolate.  Because, well...chocolate!!!  ;)

Well...I didn't get any photos of the chocolate one before we snarfed it down, and it still needs work...sigh.  I did get a photo of the rootbeer one.  Obviously, I made it incorrectly, as it taste more like caramel than rootbeer.  Like I said, I'm new to this whole business of no ice cream maker.  I found a basic recipe at Kevin & Amanda's site, and it is so simple!  Especially for those like me who don't like to have to go back and stir stuff every hour or so...lol.

Whipping cream and sweetened condensed milk...who knew?

so the basic recipe is 2 cups heavy cream, 1 can sweetened condensed milk and flavoring of choice.  You mix the cream in a mixing bowl till it forms peaks.  While that's going on, you mix the flavoring in the milk and then when the creams ready, you fold it into the cream.  Pour it into a container that either has a lid, or you cover with plastic wrap and then freeze for a good 6 hours.  Then, voila!  You have ice cream that you didn't have to pour ice and salt and an hour or two of cranking noise to have.  It's REALLY rich...so I'm going to try some variations.

Here's the recipe we did for the rootbeer...


2 pints whipping cream (couldn't bear to get the heavy stuff...sigh)
2 cans sweetened condensed milk  (1 can was fat free)
rootbeer extract

In large mixing bowl, whip cream with wire attachment until stiff peaks form.  As I was doing this in 100 degree weather, and my kitchen isn't much cooler, I had to keep the bowl cool -- so I put a malleable bag of frozen blueberries under it to keep cool.  ;)  (I discovered when I made the chocolate chip version that keeping the cream cold helps as well.)  Open the milk and stir in rootbeer flavoring.  I did about 2 tb per can...fold into whipped cream, and pour into container.  I purchased those cheap disposable food trays so that they were flat and would fit in my freezer better.  I figured the metallic tray would help freeze things faster.  I covered them with plastic wrap and then stuck them in the freezer.
When we took them out over 6 hours later...the rootbeer was a little liquidy in the bottom...kind of like a caramel.  The chocolate chip was fine.  Like I said, I hadn't kept things cold enough with the rootbeer, so I think it wasn't freezing as easily as the other.  It didn't really taste rootbeery either, so I'm definitely going to have to work on it.
It's still edible, and cold, so ya know it's going to get eaten.  We want to try making a lemonaid one next...so I'll let you know how that turns out.  I figure it's not totally the worst thing you could eat - it doesn't have loads of eggs...no added sugar other than the condensed milk...and flavoring is what you put in, so hey, it's better than most of what you buy these days!  ;)


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