I scream
Earlier this week, my new toy arrived: a 6 quart White Mountain electric ice cream freezer like the one my mom has had for 25 years.
I grew up on homemade ice cream, as I reflected on in a prior post, and I have missed it when we throw big events at the house. There's nothing like a freezer of homemade ice cream to top off a wonderful meal, or to serve as an accompaniment to a great cake, pie or cobbler. But I haven't felt like making the investment in dollars or space to buy one. Until now.
But I digress.
So, I broke down and bought the dopey thing, and it arrived Tuesday. Last night, I made up the custard and refrigerated it in anticipation of freezing it tonight: sugarless chocolate. Now, before you turn your nose up at sugarless, you need to taste my sugarless ice cream. It doesn't taste sugarless. It tastes terrific.
The freezing process was like meeting up with an old friend or riding a bicycle: you never really forget. I quickly developed the ice/rock salt strata in the bucket, started the motor and things were underway. Just as expected, in about 25 minutes, we had delicious homemade chocolate ice cream!
There's just one problem: we don't have room for this beast anywhere.
Why did I do this? Oh yeah, for the ice cream. Well, it is delicious. I am actually dying to make a favorite of my mom's, made with Butterfinger candy bars (definitely not sugarless), and a favorite of mine, which is Cherry Pie. But those will have to wait for another time. For now, though, we'll enjoy the chocolate.
posted by Marc @ 10:55 PM
11 comments
11 Comments:
How big is it?
I never understood the rock salt part when making ice cream.
coffeedog: 6 quarts, like I said at the beginning. : ) When assembled, it's about 24 inches tall by 14 inches wide. The bucket part only is about 18 inches tall, and the ice cream "can" that holds the mixture is about 14" by 6".
The rock salt part is a bit of science. The salt causes the ice to melt, creating a more even chill than ice by itself, because instead of being surrounded by lots of ice and warmer air, it's surrounded completely by cold. The ice is 0 degrees, but it can't cool the air around it to 0 while it's also dealing with the friction of a spinning container. By creating an ice brine, you completely envelop the container in cold, so that the temperature is maintained at an even 0 to -6 degrees throughout the bucket. If your salt/ice mixture has too much salt, the ice melts too quickly and the ice cream freezes harder on the sides of the container than in the middle. Too little salt and it doesn't freeze at all. It can be tricky, but if you know what you're doing, it's no big deal.
The majority of all my kitchen goodies have to be kept in the garage, the hall closet, the buffet...it goes on and on so I feel your pain.
I was going to buy one of those, but considering my space issues, I went with the counter sized one. Lets face it, if I made a bigger batch, I would just have a bigger ass.
I'm on my way over...save me a bowl. ;D
michelle: roflmao re: bigger batch = bigger ass. oh, don't I know.
atg: that's a long drive, girl!
Homemade Ice Cream makes me miss my grandma. She died when I was 7, and every summer, we had a week we'd visit, and we'd have Homemade Ice Cream. Fun times. :)
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Marc!
oh i can't wait to see your ice cream!! what about blueberry!?
How could I miss an ice cream post. That's an impressive sized ice cream maker. I can see why you'd have difficulty finding storage/counter space for it.
Do the dogs get a taste?
Joie: welcome! Come back for a visit soon.
Dan: thanks for the birthday wishes!
pinknest: mmmm, blueberry. With some sliced fresh peaches atop it.
Matt: the dogs indeed do get a taste. What usually happens is that the churn (paddle) is covered with ice cream when it comes out of the container so it has to be placed on a platter. It's difficult to get all the ice cream off the paddle, so some of it winds up melting onto the platter and that's what the dogs get. It's better that way, anyway, because eating very cold things tends to make them throw up. And milk really isn't good for their digestive systems, so just a taste is all they should have. :-)
It's a long drive, but there's home made ice cream to be had! ;D
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