Making America’s favorite, the way Grandma used to…

IN THE KITCHEN by Ann Harwood:  Recipes for homemade vanilla ice cream, complete with many of the delicious variations and add-ins to enhance the frozen treat.

   I am the woman who, as soon as we moved out of "the city," bought a one-gallon electric-driven ice cream freezer — the kind you pack with ice and rock salt. I am the woman who encouraged her children to help make homemade ice cream for all summer family events. I am the woman who taught them the pleasure of licking the dasher (the freezer’s mixing/whipping component), dripping with ice-cold freshly made ice cream, as it is removed from the freezer can. And now I am the woman whose youngest child listed on her bridal registry a one-gallon electric ice cream freezer — the kind you pack with ice and rock salt.
   Yeah!
   Our family’s love of ice cream goes back generations. My grandmother, who lived with us from the time I was 5, used to tell my brother and me many colorful tales of helping her father in their bakery and ice cream parlor in 19th-century Germantown in Philadelphia. She so regretted that all their recipes were sold with the business after his death, and that she — who knew most of them by heart at one time — never wrote them down. As she grew older, remembering recipes became increasingly elusive.
   I think, though, that all her tales of those long remembered flavors was what made me want to make homemade ice creams. And I do love making it.
   Here are our two vanilla ice cream recipes. The French Vanilla is so rich with egg yolks that I do not make it as much as I did when I was younger. Because my son is lactose-intolerant, I have made them both for the past 20 years with lactase-treated milk, now available in all markets as Lactaid. I do try to get fresh, pasteurized (not ultra-pasteurized) cream from the Whole Earth Center, as I vastly prefer the flavor of fresh thick cream.
   The purpose of the gelatin in the "Philadelphia" vanilla and the egg yolks in the French Vanilla is to act as a liaison and binder, helping to prevent ice crystals and keeping the ice cream smooth.
"PHILADELPHIA" VANILLA ICE CREAM
   1 quart skimmed milk (can be Lactaid)
   2 envelopes unflavored gelatin
   2 cups sugar
   ½ teaspoon salt
   5 cups heavy cream
   2 tablespoons pure vanilla extract
   Pour 2/3 cup cold milk into small bowl and add gelatin to soften. Scald remaining milk. Remove from heat, add softened and puffy gelatin mixture and stir until dissolved. Add sugar and salt, stir to dissolve. Pour into cold bowl and chill.
   Add cream and vanilla. Place in freezer can, add dasher and follow manufacturer’s directions to freeze.
   Makes about ¾ gallon — or a full gallon by adding any one of the fruit mixes.
FRENCH VANILLA ICE CREAM
   1 vanilla bean, 6 to 7 inches long
   1 quart skimmed milk (can be Lactaid)
   2 cups sugar
   12 egg yolks
   5 cups heavy cream
   Split vanilla bean and place in medium saucepan with milk and 1¼ cups sugar. Heat over low heat, stirring frequently to dissolve sugar. Do not boil.
   Meanwhile, in large heat-proof bowl, beat yolks with remaining ¾ cup sugar until light and thick. "Temper" yolk mixture by whisking into it some hot milk mixture. Pour yolk mixture back into pan of hot milk, beating with whisk.
   Over low heat, stir custard until just before it boils and mixture coats back of spoon. Strain through fine mesh sieve into heat-proof bowl, cover and chill in refrigerator. Scrape tiny black seeds from vanilla bean and stir seeds into custard. Discard bean halves.
   Stir in salt and cream. Place in freezer can, add dasher and follow manufacturer’s directions to freeze.
   Makes about ¾ gallon — or a full gallon by adding one of the fruit mixes.


Tips for homemade ice cream

   • The heavier the cream, the smoother the ice cream, since air can be whipped in while freezing. There is more fat between the ice crystals.

   • Dissolve sugar in one of the liquid ingredients as you make your mix.

   • Make your mix the night before and chill it overnight.

   • If you are adding fruit or fruit purée to the ice cream mix before freezing it, have the fruit well chilled.

   • Chill the canister and dasher before pouring in the mix.

   • Fill the canister no more than ¾ full to allow room for expansion as it freezes.

   • Follow the manufacturer’s instructions on proportions of ice to salt, usually four to six parts ice to one part salt.

   • Chill well any fruit purée, candy, chocolate chips or nuts that you intend to swirl in after removing the dasher.

   • Have plenty of ice on hand for the final "ripening."

   • When the dasher begins to strain, the ice cream is ready. Turn off the motor. Remove all salt water from around the canister lid. Remove the dasher.

   • Scrape down the ice cream and quickly stir in any swirled mixtures, nuts, candy, etc.

   • Ice cream can be ripened as the manufacturer of the freezer suggests, or by quickly scraping into plastic containers and freezing in your home freezer.

   • When inventing new flavors, remember that freezing kills intensity, so do not be afraid to over-flavor or over-sweeten.

LET THE VARIATIONS BEGIN!
   I. Things to peel, crush, sugar, chill well and add before freezing:
   A. 6 cups hulled strawberries, crushed and sugared with superfine sugar.
   B. 4 cups (about 2 pounds) ripe peaches, crushed with some fresh lemon juice and ½ cup superfine sugar. (You can make a wonderful peach ice cream by using part brown sugar in the mix and by substituting 2 cups sour cream for 2 of the heavy cream.)
   C. 6 cups raspberries, crushed with superfine sugar to taste.
   D. 6 cups blackberries. Crush, then sieve half to remove at least half the seeds, add ½ cup superfine sugar. When you are ready to remove the dasher from the ice cream and repack it for its final "curing," you can add 6 tablespoons Chambord or Cassis liqueur.
   E. Substitute 2½ cups banana purée (5 medium, barely ripe bananas, mashed well with 2 teaspoons lemon juice) for 2½ cups of the heavy cream. This makes an almost soft-serve texture ice cream. Wonderful in a bittersweet chocolate cup, as the center of an ice cream bombe, or lovely over grilled pineapple rings. It is best made with the Philadelphia Vanilla.
   II. Things to cook, chill well and swirl in when the dasher comes out:
   A. 2 quarts blueberries with ¾ cup sugar and a little lemon juice.
   B. 4 cups pitted sour cherries cooked until soft with 1 cup sugar. (Taste before chilling to see if you need more sugar.)
   C. Buttered pecans. In the beginning, before starting your ice cream mix, cook 4 cups pecan halves in 1 stick butter until pecans begin to smell just a little toasted. Watch like a hawk and don’t let burn. Place regular strainer over medium saucepan and pour in pecan/butter mixture. Use this pecan butter in with the hot milk in either of the above recipes. Chill pecans well, then chop coarsely before swirling into ice cream.
   III. Things to swirl in when the dasher comes out:
   A. Crushed peppermint stick candy.
   B. Crushed peanut brittle.
   C. Mini chocolate chips or M&M’s.
   D. Chopped up Reese’s peanut butter cups, Clark bars, Heath Bars, or any candy bar you particularly like.
CAPPUCINO ICE CREAM
(inspired by Barbara Tropp)
   Use the Philadelphia Vanilla Ice Cream recipe as your master recipe with the following changes:
   Before you do anything else, grind ½ cup espresso coffee beans. Place in medium sauce pan with one cinnamon stick and 3-2/3 cups skimmed milk. Bring to almost boiling, then remove from heat, cover and steep at least 30 minutes. Remove cinnamon stick. Strain coffee milk through a fine mesh strainer into another saucepan, pressing down on beans to extract as much coffee as you can.
   Begin the ice cream recipe and use the coffee milk instead of "remaining milk" in the master recipe. When adding the sugar use 2¼ cups. When adding the cream, eliminate the vanilla.
BITTERSWEET CHOCOLATE ICE CREAM
(inspired by Wolfgang Puck)
   Use the French Vanilla Ice Cream recipe as your master recipe with the following changes:
   Before you do anything else, first breaking into small pieces 1 pound good bittersweet chocolate and placing it in heat-proof bowl large enough to hold the hot custard as well. When custard is cooked and coats the back of wooden spoon, strain through fine mesh sieve into bowl containing chocolate. Stir until chocolate dissolves, cover and chill in refrigerator. Proceed with master recipe.