Ice Heaven

Blueberry-Cinnamon Ice Cream

Ice cream has to be one of the true joys of summer.  (If you’re like me and love pumpkin ice cream, it’s also one of fall’s pleasures.)  As much as I enjoyed the occasional scoop or two, however, I was getting dissatisfied with commercial ice cream–waaaay too much sugar and way too many unnecessary additives.  (Guar gum?  Monodiglycerides?  No, thanks.)  True to form, I got obsessed with the idea of making my own.  The result was membership in a cowshare program to get local, grass-fed, raw milk and cream; research into alternative natural sweeteners like honey, agave, and maple syrup; and a $35 investment in an ice cream maker.

The good news is, you don’t have to go quite that far to make some top-notch ice cream.  What you do need is the maker itself and then various proportions of the following:

* good-quality milk (whole, from grass-fed cows, preferably unhomogenized)

* good-quality eggs (from pastured hens)

* whatever fruit you might like to include (it’s easiest to work with frozen fruit that’s thawed out in the fridge overnight)

* whatever sweetener strikes your fancy (preferably honey, agave, or maple syrup)

* any other flavoring you’d like to add (vanilla, cocoa powder, cinnamon, top-notch chocolate, etc.)

Follow the directions given in your ice-maker kit in terms of proportions and churning/freezing time.  (I make a bit less than a straight substitution for the sugar to a natural sweeter:  if it calls for 1/2 cup of sugar, I use 1/3 cup of agave/maple/honey.)  The easiest way to prepare the base is to blend the fruit in a blender or food processor and then add enough milk and cream to reach whatever amount of total liquid the recipe calls for.  Then add your eggs, sweetener, and whatever other ingredients you’d like to include except for chunky/whole ingredients.  Those go in at the tail end of the freezing process.  Blend everything and pour the mixture into the ice cream maker.  Continue per the manufacturer’s instructions.

Note:  homemade ice cream gets harder than conventional ice cream.  When first made, it has the texture of a curling soft-serve cone, but freezing will make it harden more than what you’re used to.  I actually prefer the texture of it–it’s more refreshing somehow, plus I know that the reason it isn’t perfectly scoopable is because of all the chemicals and fillers that aren’t in it.

Enjoy!

Tags: blueberries, homemade ice cream, honey, ice cream, natural sweeteners