Ice Cream Obsessed: Insights on Frozen Deliciousness

It seems that, especially with summer approaching, Columbus is in full blown, can't-get-enough, want-to-see-you-every-night love with ice cream: Mozart's Cafe & Bakery is expanding into the frozen delights biz, Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream has a cookbook coming out in June and her stores are popping up like post-rain mushrooms (a walk up in German Village! an outpost in Chagrin Falls!), and even local criminals want a piece of the action.

So of course, the Ham Sandwich had to try her hand at crafting her own delicious treats. Thanks to my sister and brother-in-law, who got me the ice cream maker attachment for the KitchenAid for Christmas this past year, I've been able to try my hand at a few flavors. And just for the record, while Jeni's is phenominal, and those giant chocolate shards in Graeter's are divine, there is something amazing and deeply satisfying about eating a bowl of your own handcrafted and hand-flavored ice cream.

Having just finished batches No. 3 (White Chocolate Mint) and No. 4 (Brandied Cherry and Chocolate), I feel safe in offering a few suggestions to those who want to give it a shot. Believe it or not, making ice cream is not really that hard (especially if you have a mixer to do all the hard work), it just requires a little time and attention (and planning ahead). So, find a recipe and give it a go. Let me know how it turns out!

Pro Tip 1: You can use 2% milk instead of heavy cream and whole milk, but unsurprisingly, you're going to have a different result. I had a container of 2% on hand and was too lazy to run to the store to get heavy cream for the recipe below, so I used all 2% in the recipe. It turned out fine--thumbs up from the coworkers--but was definitely missing the creamy texture that you get with (duh) cream.

Salted Carmel Ice Cream with Dark Chocolate Chips

Pro Tip 2: Low, slow, and constant! When you add the eggs/sugar to the heated milk, make sure you keep the burner on low and continuously--seriously, don't stop!--stir the heating custard. Two things will happen: 1) you can actually get a feel for the custard as it thickens, which will help you gauge when to take it off the heat, and 2) you'll keep it from sticking to the bottom. As soon as the custard coats the back of a spoon, pull it off the heat...you can go from custard to curdled pretty quickly. ....And if it does curdle, pour your custard through a strainer to get the lumps out. (Actually, do this no matter what, it's just a good practice with any thing you may want smooth: custard, gravy, sauces, etc.)

Pro Tip 3: When using fruit or large berries, give them a good chop and a toss with some sugar before you add them to the custard. I added whole blackberries to the custard I made on batch No. 1, and ended up with large, frozen chunks of berry in my ice cream. Also, since I didn't macerate them with sugar before I added them, they tended to just-slightly-the-wrong side of tartness. Lesson learned.

Blackberry Ice Cream (from the KitchenAid manual)

Pro Tip 4: If adding anything larger than some chopped up mint leaves, wait until the custard is finished churning, pour it into a bowl, and then fold in your chips/nuts/berries/what have you before letting the "soft serve" set in the freezer. When I dumped the (large, unsweetened) berries into the ice cream maker, it just ended pushing them around the bowl, and did not really distribute them evenly. Maybe this was just due to the small size of my operation, but still, folding everything together in a bowl just makes it easier.

Alrighty, that's what I have so far, but I've no doubt that as this little experiment continues, I'll pick up some other insights...here's to ice cream season!