making ice cream

Last year, I was chatting with my friend Kazumi and we were talking about ice cream makers. I was asking her what brand was the best and told her I was thinking of buying one.

She told me that if I didn't mind, she was cleaning out her garage and noticed several appliances that she hadn't used in awhile, so if I wanted a second hand ice cream maker, I could have one of hers.

I immediately said "yes, please!" After our conversation, it was some time before we got together again, so it was awhile before I received the maker from her.

After receiving the machine, I immediately thought that I should try making vanilla ice cream, as that is the most basic flavor.

Of course, when you get a new gadget, you have to get a new cookbook, right? I purchased David Lebovitz's book, "The Perfect Scoop", it was raved about all over the blogosphere last year. I also found an ice cream recipe book which doesn't use eggs in Japanese.

The reason why I wanted to try an egg-less recipe for my first trial was that I didn't have the confidence of not overcooking the eggs for the custard.

So, I tried the egg-less recipe in Japanese. The method required you to beat the fresh cream with sugar until you got peaks. Then add in some milk and pour the mixture into your ice cream maker.

I didn't like this version at all. First, it was more like ice milk than vanilla ice cream because it didn't call for any vanilla. Next, it was gritty and didn't hold its shape at all (it melted after snapping this shot). And lastly, while beating the cream with the sugar for the amount of time suggested, the cream started to separate. (insert pouty face). So after mixing it with the amount of milk and then putting the mixture into the ice cream maker, there were streaks of oil from the cream, leaving an ugly residue on your spoon as well as in your mouth....blah.

Another thing I didn't like about this book was there was no indication of how much ice cream you would yield if your followed the full recipe...sigh.

So, a couple of days later, I tried David's method for Philadelphia style vanilla ice cream.

His version called for heating cream with sugar and some vanilla from a vanilla pod. I halved the recipe since my maker only makes 1/2 a liter and used part of the Lifou vanilla which I bought on our trip to Noumea last year.

This version also called for vanilla extract. After heating the cream and sugar until the sugar dissolved, I added the milk and the extract. Then I chilled the mixture.

After several hours, I put the chilled mixture into the maker and came out with a creamy vanilla ice cream. This was delicious!

Satoshi had tried the first attempt and was surprised when I told him that I made the second version too. (He thought I had bought it.)

I'm so happy I bought David's book. I will probably take the Japanese recipes and adapt them to this vanilla ice cream recipe. I also hope to try a custard version...hopefully, I'll get up enough courage to.