Does anyone make their own ice cream?

[Valerie]

I used to, but I haven't for ages... until this afternoon, when my daughter and I started a batch. I'll let you know how it turns out, and post the recipe tomorrow if it turns out well (fingers crossed).

[Valerie]

We made it, and it turned out pretty well! I don't know what possessed me to make White Chocolate Ice Cream, but that's the flavor we made... my daughter loved it, and if you love white chocolate, you probably will, too. Me? Not so much :)

I'm going to post the recipe under Desserts. I'd still love to hear if anyone else has any good ice cream recipes.

[RandomAnthony]

Do you need one of those spinner things, Val? I don't know what the hell they're called. The ice cream spinning things.

[Valerie]

Yes - you need an ice cream maker for the recipe I posted. Mine is automated, which I like (you can still buy some that you have to crank, but I've heard it's much harder to have the ice cream come out smooth). I looked my machine up to see about what it cost (I think I paid about $40 for it) but they don't make it anymore... I bought it about ten years ago, so it's probably considered an antique by now. But I saw others that cost around $50.

If you're (or anyone is) thinking about buying one, check out the recipe that I posted to see what you're getting yourself into - it does take a little time and planning (make the custard, chill for a few hours, etc.). It's not rocket science, but you don't just drop in all the ingredients and then sit down and have a drink while while the ice cream is made (damn!).

[Yelena]

I haven't bought ice cream in probably three years. I make all my own ice cream and sorbet and it is, in a word, amazing. For years I had the $50 cuisinart which worked fine - made really decent ice creams. Last year I upgraded to the cuisinart with cooling mechanism inside (which means I don't have to freeze the bowls beforehand) and it turns out simply stupendous ice cream.

This past week or so I've made Jasmine, Avocado, Butterscotch, and Chocolate ice creams. For Passover, I'll be serving seville and blood orange sorbets as part of my dessert.

David Liebowitz's book The Perfect Scoop is a great resource, though I'll confess his basic vanilla recipe really doesn't use enough eggs.

In terms of learning curve, even if the eggs in your custard scramble, running the custard through a fine-mesh sieve twice renders the custard base usable again (provided you didn't scramble the heck out of the eggs - I'm talking, oops I left the custard cooking an extra 30 seconds, not an extra 3 minutes).

I really cannot say enough for homemade ice cream - if I'm not crazy about a flavor I've made I bring the batch into work - and the man of my house finally got the compliment right when he tasted my chocolate ice cream for the first time and said, "this is easily the best chocolate ice cream I've ever had."

[Meridee]

We used to make ice cream every Sunday night which was the incentive to make sure that the kids were home for a family dinner. Our favorite was Chocolate with a hint of cinnamon in the mix.

Had a taste of soup at an area restaurant last month that would have made a great ice cream or sorbet style dessert as it was much too sweet as a soup. They were serving Sweet Potato Soup with crushed French Fried Onions as garnish but you needed onions on each spoonful to get through the sweetness of the soup. I would probably serve it with a drizzle of caramel or a brown sugary maple style sauce and some chopped caramelized pecans sprinkled over it.

I also adore Green Tea Ice Cream.

Boy, I need a combination Rice Cooker/Slow Cooker/Bread Maker/Ice Cream Maker/Wok/Food Processor/Salad Shooter. All-in-one as I have no storage space.