A Tale of Two Ice Creams

I wanted a basic ice cream base recipe that I could vamp on, and I found exactly what I was looking for here. The base is so easy that even my holey brain can remember it - 3 cups milk, 3/4 cup sugar, 6 egg yolks. Perfect! Or, put another way, 1/4c sugar & 2 yolks to each cup of milk.

Basic Ice Cream

I love this recipe because it's so easy to remember -- two yolks and a quarter-cup of sugar for every cup of dairy. But as long as you stick to the general idea, feel free to switch things up to taste.

1 cup whole milk

3/4 cup sugar

2 cups heavy cream

6 large egg yolks

pinch salt

Special equipment: an ice cream maker, and a heat-proof spoon or, preferably, a heat-proof spatula

1. Heat milk, about half the sugar, half the cream, and salt in a heavy saucepan. Bring just to a boil, stirring to dissolve sugar. If steeping for flavor, add your ingredients, take off heat, and cover.

2. Meanwhile, in large-ish bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and the other half of the sugar.

3. When the steeping is done, strain or fish out the flavorings and reheat the milk mixture, just until hot. Pour about half of it in a slow stream into the egg yolks, whisking constantly. (This is called tempering the yolks, and it heats them up evenly without turning them into scrambled eggs.) Pour the milk-yolk mixture back into the pot and cook it over medium-low heat, stirring constantly and making sure you're scraping the bottom. Cook it until it's thick enough to coat the back of your spoon: Swipe the spoon with your finger. If it leaves a trail about the width of your finger, it's ready. Don't let it boil.

4. Strain the ice cream base through a fine-mesh sieve into a metal bowl. (The straining catches any bits of egg that may have scrambled; it's kind of optional if you were careful.) Stir in the rest of the cream, and let cool. Cover and chill in fridge until cold, at least 6 hours or overnight. (If you really don't want to wait, dunk the bowl in an ice water bath, stirring, until it's cold.) At this point, you have what they call crème anglaise, a lovely dessert sauce. (If using fruit purees or booze, this would be a good time to stir it in.)

5. Freeze in ice cream maker, according to manufacturer's directions or your preference.

6. If doing a mix-in, chill a large metal bowl in the freezer or set it up in ice water bath. Gently fold in the ingredients to the ice cream in this cold bowl when it's fresh out of the machine.

7. Pack ice cream in an airtight container and let it set in freezer until firm, at least another 4 hours.

Now, I wanted to make a coconut ice cream, so here is what I did:
I poured 1 can of coconut milk into a 4c measuring cup. It was not quite 2 cups. Always buy organic coconut milk, so that it doesn't have sulphur dioxide added. If you can find it not canned, that would be better, as the cans are lined with BPA, which leaches into the fatty liquid. Ugh. Oh, but don't get that coconut milk-substitute that's in the dairy case. Far too processed and too many ingredients. You want full-fat, organic coconut milk, not "lite", sometimes labeled coconut cream. But NOT cream of coconut. Clear as mud? Anyway, to the not-quite-2-cups of coconut milk, I added heavy whipping cream to make 3 cups. I poured half into a saucepan & heated it, adding 3/4 cup coconut palm sugar. I used the 6 egg yolks, a pinch of unrefined sea salt, and about 1/4cup coconut manna. This product may also be labeled "coconut butter". It's the ground up flesh & fat of coconut - think peanut butter, but with coconut. So, I cooked & processed these ingredients according to the recipe above, and it came out absolutely divine!

Now, I also wanted to make an eggless, gelatin-thickened version for my friend who is allergic to eggs. Sadly, I did not make note of where I found the eggless version, so I can't credit it. Sorry. I adapted it liberally, anyway, based on the information in the basic recipe, and on the ingredients I had on hand.

Eggless Gelatin Ice Cream

1 tbsp. (1 envelope) unflavored gelatin

2 tbsp. cold water

2 c. milk

3/4 c. sugar

1/8 tsp. salt

2 c. light cream

2 tsp. vanilla

Soften gelatin in cold water. Scald milk; add gelatin, sugar, and salt. Stir until dissolved. Cool. Add cream and vanilla. Freeze. Makes 1 1/2 quarts.

VARIATIONS: Strawberry or raspberry: Combine 2 cups mashed berries with 1/2 cup sugar; add to master recipe just before freezing.

Here is what I did: I poured the can of coconut milk into the measuring cup, and topped up with heavy whipping cream to make 4 cups this time, instead of 3. The extra liquid is making up for the loss of the egg yolks in the original recipe. Dissolved the gelatin, added the pinch of salt, 3/4 cup coconut palm sugar, and again 1/4 cup coconut manna. I forgot to cook only half the milk mixture, and heated it all - not a huge problem, just meant it took longer for the mixture to cool. I whisked it well & strained it while it was still hot. When it was thoroughly cool, I processed it in the ice cream freezer. The freezer motor shut off eventually, but the ice cream was not solidified. It had more of a marshmallow texture, which makes sense, since marshmallows are just gelatin & sugar. I spooned it into a plastic container anyway & froze it. It did freeze hard, but just a couple of minutes at room temp, and it was perfect! 

I had several friends taste-test both versions. Some liked the gelatin version better, because it was a little sweeter, and had a slightly more caramelly taste, but some liked the egg version better, as it was richer and smoother. They were both pretty darned delicious! 

The next variation will be to make it with all coconut milk, to have a dairy-free version. Coconut milk is super-rich, so just a tiny serving should be very satisfying. The one major concern is the BPA from the cans. I would be wary of serving it to children, most especially male children. They really don't need the estrogenic compounds, and their bodies are even more susceptible to contamination than ours. I will be on the lookout for a not-canned organic coconut milk, and will update this post if I find it!

Update: I did make a dairy-free version, and it came out GREAT!
2 cans organic full-fat coconut milk
5 egg yolks
3/4 cup coconut palm sugar
4 Chai Spice tea bags - steeped in the hot milk, before adding the yolk for the custard. 

Watermelon Sorbet

So I wanted to do something with this enormous watermelon I got, besides eating it in chunks and/or juicing it. There is only so much watermelon you can eat, or drink. I've always thought it would be nice to freeze watermelon pulp in the ice cream freezer, but I wasn't sure how it would come out. Actually, as I'm typing this, I'm still not sure how it will come out, but I'll let you know! I went over to Epicurious and researched some recipes, and as usual, came up with my own version. So here's what I did:

Put about 1/4 cup water in a small bowl, and sprinkle 1 envelope unflavored gelatin over it. Leave to soften.

Put 1/3 cup water and 1/3 cup sugar in a small saucepan and heat over low heat, stirring occasionally, until all the sugar is dissolved. Pour the sugar syrup into the softened gelatin and stir for a while to be sure all the gelatin is dissolved. Leave on counter to cool.

Put your watermelon in the sink, rinse it off, and cut it in half (mine didn't actually fit in the sink, but the halves did. You can cut it lengthwise or the short way to get the pulp, it doesn't matter. Put your blender right next to the sink, and scoop watermelon flesh, seeds and all, into the blender. Whirl the flesh, on low speed, until it's all pulp and seeds. On low speed, it won't cut up the seeds. Strain the pulp through a colander (not a strainer - a colander with round holes is best) to remove the seeds.

Measure 4 cups watermelon puree into a half-gallon pitcher. Mix in 2 tablespoons limoncello liqueur, and then the cooled gelatin mixture. Place the pitcher in the refrigerator to chill. If you don't have limoncello, you can use fresh lemon juice and perhaps some vodka. The alcohol is intended to keep it from freezing solid once the sorbet is made, but it's optional.

When the mixture is cold, process in your ice cream freezer, according to the manufacturer's instructions.

You will likely have a lot more watermelon puree than you'll need. I like to strain the rest through a strainer (a fine sieve for this second straining), and keep the juice. It's sweet, an AMAZING red color (like Hawaiian Punch, seriously, but all natural!), and it mixes very nicely with vodka! I'm sure that like all juices, the sugar is way too isolated to be healthy, but hey, it's a once-a-summer indulgence.

Now, I'm currently at the "chilling the mixture" stage. It tasted pretty good, but the big question is, how will it freeze up? Last time I used my little ice cream freezer (eggless gelatin ice cream), I didn't get the gelatin all the way dissolved (cream wasn't hot enough) and I didn't chill the mixture before putting it into the ice cream freezer. So I'm hoping these two steps will help. Since watermelon is so sweet to begin with, I added the gelatin, to help with the texture without overdoing the sugar.

Once it's frozen, I'll update with results!

Update One: Once the ice cream freezer had pretty much done its job, I scooped the sorbet into a container and put it in the freezer. Later that night, I mixed it up a little - the inside was still soft, outsides beginning to get hard. Scooped some out and ate it - the texture was silky, the color deep pinkish red, and the flavor was wonderful - sweet, with a limoncello aftertaste. I think the silky texture is from the gelatin, so I was pleased with this addition.

Update Two: The next day, it was frozen pretty much solid. I tried to scoop some, and ended up scraping it up into the ice cream scoop, which has a very useful thin aluminum edge. I found myself wishing I'd smoothed the top of the sorbet before I put it back into the freezer the night before; it would have made the scraping easier. Since it was icier, from being frozen and scraped like a granita, it came out a much lighter color, a lovely lighter pink. It was still sweet and delicious, and actually the limoncello overtones had calmed down, which was good.

Conclusion: I declare the watermelon-limoncello sorbet a rousing success! Something I've always wanted to try, and it came out great. Go me! ;-)

HOLY TOLEDO!! Coconut Ice Cream

This is currently freezing in my ice cream maker but the first taste was SO FREAKING AWESOME that I just had to run in here and post the recipe!!

From Epicurious but with substantial changes:

1/8 cup ginger preserves
2 13.5- to 14-ounce cans chilled unsweetened coconut milk (NOT LOW FAT)
3/4 cup turbinado sugar
1 cup chilled heavy cream
5 tablespoons fresh lime juice*
1 tablespoon grated lime peel/zest
Pinch of salt

Whisk coconut milk, sugar, half and half, lime juice, lime peel, salt, and ginger preserve in medium bowl until sugar dissolves.

Transfer mixture to ice cream maker. Process according to manufacturer's instructions.

Transfer ice cream to container; cover and freeze until firm, about 3 hours.

*I only had one small lime, so I used its juice, however much that turned out to be.

I reduced the specified amount of sugar from 1 cup plus 2T to a little less than a cup, and would like it even better with a skosh less, hence the 3/4 cup measurement. I think it will be a bit icy, several of the reviewers mentioned theirs was, but using heavy cream should help that some. One reviewer made hers with egg yolks for an even richer version. Making a custard in a double boiler was beyond my patience tonight, so I didn' t try that variation!

But oh my GOSH. The coconut flavor is strong and delicious, and it's just sweet enough. Seriously, I cannot tell you how delicious this is!!