Ice cream is such a nostalgic thing for so many people. It’s the same for me. When I grew up my family had a cottage up north with the BEST ice cream shop a block away right on the water. They had tons up different flavors. Of course as a kid, my favorite was bubble gum. We have go back in the summer time whenever we are passing through. Now little MK has found a love for bubble gum ice cream and as an adult my favorite has become blueberry cheesecake.
Needless to say, we love ice cream in our house! With fall quickly approaching we are holding on to whatever part of summer we can. And right now we are doing that with lots of homemade ice cream. I have tried out recipes before that required no churning. We just didn’t care for them for various reasons. So an electric maker has been on my list for a while. For Mother’s Day last year, Mr. MK bought me an ice cream maker. I was so excited and we have been using it ever since.
I put quite a bit of time into researching what maker is the best. The Cuisinart models all have great reviews! Mr. MK ended up getting me this one because it made more ice cream than the smaller models. So far we are really liking it! We haven’t ventured out into many recipes. We have just used the ones included in the recipe book. We stick to mostly plain vanilla. We aren’t fancy in our house…
Tips for Making Ice Cream
The first step requires you to mix the whole milk and sugar with a hand mixer. I have found the most important thing here is to make sure all of the sugar is mixed in well. If it isn’t your ice cream will have more of a grainy texture. The mixture will start to bubble as you stir. This is normal. Don’t worry!
After you use the hand mixer. You mix the rest of the ingredients by hand. Here is what it looks like all mixed in the bowl.
After that, you just dump your mixed base into the maker. It’s as easy as that! When you dump the mixture in, you should have the machine on, already churning.
Once you turn the maker on, it takes about 20-25 minutes for the mixture to thicken up to the right consistency. This is the hardest part of the recipe. Waiting! Here is what it looks like done.
The ice cream thickens up nicely. You can eat it right away. We like to freeze it for a couple of hours so it gets a little harder yet. I found some cheaper containers at a random store a while ago but I have my eye on these so the ice cream fits in a little better.
For extra fun, in the last 5 minutes of churning, you can add in other ingredients. Last week, I stirred in Oreos to make cookies n’ cream. Little MK loved it! Mr. MK and I tend to like plain vanilla. I have never been a big chocolate person. But Little MK absolutely loves chocolate!! I see us making some chocolate recipes in the future so Little MK can have his favorite. What is your favorite ice cream flavor?
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups whole milk
- 1 1/8 cups granulated sugar
- 3 cups heavy cream
- 1 1/2 tablespoons vanilla extract
Instructions
In a mixing bowl, combine whole milk and sugar using a hand mixer. Make sure you mix the sugar in well. I typically mix for 2 minutes. Once mixed. stir in heavy cream and vanilla. These ingredients get mixed in my hand. Turn the machine on and pour the mixture into the bowl. Now just let the ice cream maker do its work. This typically takes 25 minutes. You can eat the ice cream right away. Or if you like a firmer consistency as we do, you can put the ice cream in an airtight, freezer-friendly container for a couple of hours. We also store our ice cream this way.
Notes
If you would like to add mix-in ingredients, like candy bars, add these in 5 minutes before the churning is done.
