Category Archives: Ice Cream

One of the ice cream recipes I’ve been wanting to try from my “ice cream bible” The Perfect Scoop is peach ice cream.  We’ve got a couple of peach trees that actually have peaches on them this year so I’ve been eagerly anticipating their ripening.  Well I lucked up because my mom called and asked me to bring my ice cream maker to their house when I visited because they had a ton of peaches and wanted to make ice cream.  Score!

Peach ice cream is just classic, there’s not much else to say about it.  This is a great and easy recipe that everyone enjoyed!

Peach Ice Cream
Recipe from:  The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz

Ingredients
1.5 lbs ripe peaches
1/2 cup water
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup sour cream
1 cup heavy cream
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
a few drops of fresh squeezed lemon juice

Method:

Peel your peaches.  Mine were very ripe so they were easy to peel, otherwise you could make an X in the bottom of them and put them in boiling water for twenty seconds.  Discard the pits.  Cook the peaches with the water in a small nonreactive saucepan about ten minutes, stirring once in a while.

Remove from heat, mix in the sugar and let it cool off to room temperature. 

Add the heavy cream, vanilla, sour cream and lemon juice and puree with a blender or immersion mixer until it’s somewhat smooth, some small chunks are ok.  Cover and refrigerate until well-chilled.

Once chilled, freeze per your ice cream maker’s instructions.

Peach Ice Cream

Yay, it’s that time of year again where homemade ice cream is the thing to do!  I know I have already said that I’m not a huge ice cream person, but I do love to make it.  It’s just fun to make something homemade from scratch.  But I do enjoy ice cream in small amounts and my favorite flavor has always been mint chocolate chip.  It’s just so refreshing, how can you not love it?

I had some mint leftover from when my parents visited (my dad made mint juleps) so I wanted to use it before it went bad.  I made this ice cream and it is my favorite type – French-style, which means an egg/custard base.  It did dirty some dishes but really, it wasn’t hard.  It just takes time.  And really, it’s worth it to spend the time because you’re using fresh REAL ingredients.  I looked at a packet of mint chocolate chip ice cream mix at the supermarket and the ingredient list was full of things you couldn’t pronounce.  Why do it?  And I bet mine tasted better – my daughter even said “this ice cream yummy, Mommy!!”

I just thought this was a fun picture of my ice cream maker in action!

Fresh Mint Ice Cream with Andes Chips
Recipe from:  The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz

Ingredients:
1 cup whole milk (I used 2% and it worked fine)
1/4 cup sugar
2 cups heavy cream
pinch of salt
2 cups lightly packed fresh mint leaves (washed really well)
5 large egg yolks
Andes mint baking chips (or chocolate chips would work also)

Method:
Warm the milk, sugar, 1 cup of cream and salt in a small saucepan.  Once it’s warm, stir in the mint leaves then cover and remove from heat.  Allow to steep for an hour.

Strain the mint mixture through a mesh strainer into another saucepan.  Get all of the cream out of those mint leaves, then discard them.  Pour the rest of the heavy cream (1 cup) into a large bowl and put the strainer on top.

Heat the mint flavored mixture back up and lightly beat the egg yolks in a separate bowl.  Add some of the warmed milk mixture a little at a time to the egg yolks, beating (do it slowly so the egg yolks don’t cook) to incorporate.  Once all is mixed together, add it back to the saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly with a spatula/scraper until the mixture is thickened on the back of the spatula.  Pour this custard through the strainer and stir into the cream in the bowl.  Set in an ice bath and stir until it’s cooled off.  Refrigerate until completely cold.

Once it’s cold, freeze per your ice cream maker’s instructions.  Once it’s starting to resemble ice cream, add however much of the chocolate chips and let it mix in.  Freeze until ready to serve.

Fresh Mint Ice Cream with Andes Chips

It’s getting to be that time of year again.  The weather is warming up, flowers are blooming and the daylight lasts just a little longer!  I couldn’t wait to start making some homemade ice cream again so I decided to give my brother and his girlfriend a special treat while they were visiting. 

Of course I turned to my “ice cream bible” for the perfect recipe and as usual, it did not fail me.  This ice cream is so creamy and rich, it’s heavenly!  My husband ate a lot of it the first night we had it!  I recently saw these mini Reese’s Peanut Butter cups so next time I might try to use those, whole. 

Chocolate-Peanut Butter Cup Ice Cream
Recipe from:  The Perfect Scoop, by David Lebovitz

Ingredients:
2 cups half and half
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup white granulated sugar
pinch of salt
1/2 cup smooth peanut butter (I used the Reese’s brand)
chopped peanut butter cups, amount to your desires

Method:
Whisk the half and half, cocoa, sugar and salt in a large saucepan.  Heat over medium heat while whisking until it comes to a rolling boil.  Remove from heat and add the peanut butter, stirring until fully incorporated. 

Refrigerate the mixture until it’s well-chilled, then freeze per your ice cream maker instructions. When it’s about half-frozen, add in the chopped peanut butter cups.  Once frozen, remove to a freezer-safe container and store in the freezer.

Chocolate-Peanut Butter Cup Ice Cream

I know, I know, you think I cook some strange stuff.  But seriously?  What do you think people said when the first crawfish was boiled?  Or the first chicken thigh fried?  And those things are fabulous.  And so is basil ice cream.  I must say, it’s HIGH up there on the best flavors I’ve tried.  It is so incredibly fresh tasting, you almost forget that it’s ice cream and hey… probably shouldn’t eat two bowls in one sitting. 

Unless you’re my husband.  He ate I believe THREE bowls in one sitting, with strawberry syrup on it, at that.  Needless to say, he enjoyed it.  And how can you go wrong since the recipe is from my ice cream bible, The Perfect Scoop?

Basil Ice Cream
Recipe from:  The Perfect Scoop

Ingredients:
1 cup packed basil leaves, washed
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 cups heavy cream
1 cup milk
pinch salt
5 large egg yolks
1 lemon

Method:

Grind the basil leaves, the sugar and 1 cup of the heavy cream in a food processor until leaves are as fine chopped as possible (be careful not to make it thicken too much though!).  Pour half of this mixture into a large bowl and add the rest of the cream.  Place a strainer over the bowl and place the bowl in an ice bath. 

Warm the rest of the mixture in a saucepan with the milk and salt.  In another bowl, whisk the yolks.  Slowly pour the warmed basil mixture into the egg yolks a little at a time, whisking constantly.  Pour the egg yolks back into the saucepan.

Constantly stir over medium heat.  Scrape the bottom until thickened and coats the back of the spatula.  Pour thoroughly into the strainer and stir into cream.  Zest the lemon directly into the mixture and stir until cool.  Refrigerate until  cold (overnight, preferably) and freeze per your ice cream maker instructions.

Fresh Basil Ice Cream

I have the coolest kid in the world, did you know that?  Well, it’s a fact, I do.  She’s also pretty sweet (when she’s not trying to bite you or throwing tantrums) and she’s so gosh darn cute you just want to snuggle her all day!  Except she’s a busybody and won’t let you.

I love indulging her in things she likes.  Which isn’t easy because she is the world’s pickiest eater EVER!  Her favorite foods are so random:  bananas, fries, veggie “chicken” nuggets, waffles, black eye peas and Italian sausage.  See, random!  So to give her a cool summer treat, I made a batch of roasted banana ice cream.  It was very easy to make and as an added bonus, it made my house smell awesome while those bananas were roasting!  She just loves her “nanas.”

Roasted Banana Ice Cream
Source:  The Perfect Scoop, by David Lebovitz (I love this book!!!)

Ingredients:
3 medium-sized ripe bananas, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch pieces.
1/3 cup light brown sugar
1 tbsp butter, cut into small pieces
1.5 cups whole milk
2 tbsp granulated sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
1.5 tsp fresh squeezed lemon juice
1/4 tsp coarse salt

Method:

Preheat oven to 400. 

Spray a baking dish with nonstick spray and add the bananas, butter pieces and the brown sugar, toss well to coat.  Bake for 40 minutes or until bananas are browned and cooked through.  Stir once.

Scrape the bananas and the syrup that formed in the baking dish into a food processor.  Add the milk, granulated sugar, vanilla, lemon juice and salt.  Puree’ until smooth. 

Chill thoroughly in the fridge then freeze in the ice cream maker per the manufacturer instructions.

Roasted Banana Ice Cream

As you can tell, we’re really enjoying making our own homemade ice cream.  The only thing I hate (and I do HATE it) is messing with the rock salt and ice.  I dream of the day when we can get the attachment for our mixer that doesn’t require using those two items.  Such a pain!

Anyway, I digress.  This sorbet was really easy to make, since it didn’t call for the custard base like my favorite French-style ice creams do.  The only thing I did differently is that I used regular milk chocolate instead of bittersweet.  It was fantastic!  I also toasted coconut as a topping to give it some crunch.  mmmm……

Chocolate-Coconut Sorbet
Adapted from The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz

Ingredients:
1 cup water
1 cup sugar
pinch of salt
8 oz milk chocolate (I used Symphony bar), finely chopped
1 can Thai coconut milk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Method:

Warm the water, sugar and salt in a medium saucepan until the sugar has dissolved.  Add the chocolate and whisk until well-combined.  Whisk in the coconut milk and vanilla and chill thorougly before freezing in ice cream machine.

Extra:  If you want toasted coconut as a topper, simply toast 1 cup coconut flakes (sweetened) at 350 until golden and crisp.

Chocolate-Coconut Sorbet with Toasted Coconut Topping