Recently, my brother-in-law churned out some fabulous vanilla ice cream using an electric ice cream maker. It was so easy that I thought maybe I'd get myself an ice cream maker.
Then, reality hit.
I don't need that much ice cream in the house at any given moment because I will convince myself that I must eat up all of the ice cream in order to save the masses from possible ice cream induced brain-freeze and ice cream related cooties. But, the ice cream process itself does seem rather interesting. So, I do what any lazy person might do: I scour the internet in search of easy ice cream recipes.
I find one that sounds simple enough: heavy cream + sugar + vanilla + salt = shake for 5 minutes in a mason jar, then freeze for four hours.
I have one mason jar with an airtight seal lid. So, all I really need is a cup of heavy cream to give this a whirl. I go to the store and discover only a quart size of heavy cream. Anything smaller is light cream or whipping cream or half and half. If the recipe calls for one cup of heavy cream, then technically I can experiment with this four times.
I assemble the ingredients into the mason jar, secure the lid, and start shaking the contents rather carefully so I don't drop it. Let me tell you, five minutes is a rather long time to be shaking a mason jar. I switch off from arm to arm, putz around the apartment while I do this, empty the dishwasher, change out the toilet paper roll, put away the new roll of aluminum foil, and just plain doubt myself that this is even going to work.
I give the shaking one more minute for extra measure, just in case I didn't thicken the mixture enough (but not too much as it might solidify into a butter-like substance). To be honest, my expectations are reasonably low. However, when I open the cover of the jar, a substance like soft-serve vanilla ice cream is in the jar. I add some chocolate chips to it and put the whole jar in the freezer.
Hmmmmmm. I wonder if I can make a chocolate version? Back to the internet go I.
Unfortunately, all the recipes involve melting things down or special-ordering stuff. Whatever. I've never met a science experiment that didn't have some element of failure attached to it, so why start now. I don't have any more mason jars, but I do have those plastic disposable soup containers.
Four hours later, the ice cream is pretty much frozen solid. I taste the vanilla chocolate chip, then I try the chocolate. Remember, my expectations are not lofty here.
Holy. Dairy. Queen. I think I might be on to something.
Another recipe suggests that this shake-an-ice-cream technique will work with evaporated milk. I put that on my shopping list. I call my sister to tell her that she and her husband are bad influences in the dessert department, and, while expounding on the benefits of non-store-bought frozen deliciousness, I wonder out loud how it might work with some coffee added.
I may have created my own Frankenstein on this one. I'll keep you posted. In the meantime, I have some ice cream to polish off and some bigger-waisted clothing to order.
