Ice Cream Making with The Fletchers

Last week I went on a field trip to my dear friend Laura's house.  She recently told me she's had an ice cream maker stashed in a cabinet for years so naturally my wheels started spinning.  The Gravy seemed like a terrific excuse to break it out and attempt to make ice cream from scratch.  I've never made ice cream before but I remember from childhood it seemed to take hours...first blending a custard over the stove then massive amounts of churning.  Would we need rock salt?  Or to crank until our arms gave out?  Luckily things have changed in ice cream technology since I was a kid.  Instead, we used this nifty contraption by Cuisinart:

Because it had two, one quart bowls it was double the fun...we could make twice the flavors!  I chose my favorite, Dulce de Leche (recipe to follow) and Laura chose chocolate chip.  No hand mixing required, no salt needed.  In fact the only preparation was the day before...Laura popped the ice cream maker's tubs in the freezer and I made the Dulce de Leche.

We used the easiest recipe we could find (only four ingredients for exactly two quarts!) from Cuisinart's own website, appropriately titled: Simple Vanilla Ice Cream.  No eggs were called for so we got to skip the stove. The beauty here was we would use the same base mixture for both flavors, adding in the caramel and chocolate chips at the end for two kinds of scream! 

Mix these ingredients in a large pitcher:

3 cups heavy cream

1 1/2 cups whole milk

1 1/8 cups granulated sugar

1 1/2 tablespoons pure vanilla

Blend with a hand mixer or immersion blender until all the sugar is dissolved.  Pour into ice cream maker!

After 25-30 minutes it starts to come together

Time to add the mix ins!  We added the chips to one tub...

and about 1/4 cup of the Dulce de Leche to the other. 

Churn for another 5-10 minutes to incorporate, then transfer ice cream to containers.  To create a ribbon of caramel throughout the Dulce De Leche flavor, simply drizzle spoonfuls of  sauce over the top and fold lightly making little railroads of sticky, golden goodness.  Freeze 1-2 hours for soft serve or overnight for a firmer set.  We weren't able to wait very long considering Laura's nearly four year old twins were clamoring for a taste!  

Now, we expected the ice cream to be delicious but the luscious texture of this frozen treat was marvelous!  Sweet but not cloyingly so, creamy but not overly rich with just the right amount of vanilla.  I hope you try it!

 Dulce De Leche Recipe

 

Dulce De Leche is a sweet caramel-like spread from South America, particularly from Argentina and Brazil.  The Spanish translation is literally "milk candy." Traditionally, the basic recipe is milk and sugar boiled down for several hours but you can easily make your own with this common pantry ingredient:  Sweetened Condensed Milk.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees, position rack in the middle.  Pour 1 can of sweetened condensed milk into a glass or metal pie tin, sprinkle with kosher salt.  Put inside a large roasting pan.

Cover pie tin with foil then pour enough water into the roasting pan until it comes halfway up the sides of the pie plate.  Bake for 2 - 2 1/2 hours, stirring halfway through and replacing the water bath if needed.  It's ready when it turns the color of peanut butter.

Whisk until smooth, about 2 minutes, cool, then transfer to a airtight container.  Refrigerate until ready to use.