Homemade Ice Cream

Anyone have an easy & cheap way to make ice cream without an ice cream maker? And I don't really want the mess of using crushed ice & rock salt. I'm also interested in your healthy ice cream recipes. I've tried the method where you use a hand mixer and mix every half hour during the freezing process, but it's kind of a pain to do and takes many hours. So any other ideas/experiences would be great! Thanks!

i use the ice cream bowl attachment for my mixer. its super easy.

best recipe is jalepeno ice cream
-grow hot peppers
-slice and throw into plain ice cream (milk/cream, sugar, egg)
-squeeze of lime optional

I made frozen yogurt once in a sealed ziplock bag, placed inside a larger ziplock filled with ice and salt (I just used table salt and ice from my freezer). You toss the the bags around from hand to hand, to churn it up while it freezes--wear gloves! Or you could make a game of it with the kids... Mine took about an hour and it needed a refill of ice and salt before it was finished. I think it would work just fine for ice cream too.

It's pretty hard to make smooth, non-icy icecream without a churn, and very hard without a custard (anglaise) base.
This is how I've done it without a churn: make an anglaise, tip into a wide container, cover, cool, add fruit or whatever and freeze till quite well set.
Dig it out into a food processor and give it a good whizz. Back into the container, cover and freeze again till firm.
One more blitz would be ideal, but that should do it.
I think it's really important to let icecream soften a bit before serving. The fridge is ideal.

Nigella Lawson makes a rich, creamy, non-churn icecream that doesn't contain icecrystals.

The basis is
300 ml double cream
175 gram(s) condensed milk

Flavouring choose from:
2 tablespoon(s) instant espresso powder
2 tablespoon(s) espresso liqueur
a bit of cooled molten chocolate
vanilla extract
a bit (not to much) of fresh fruit
or what have you

The concended milk is sweetened already, so you don't need to add more sugar. Just whisk everything untill it forms soft creamy peaks, pop in a container, put in de freezer for about 6 hours, and eat it. It keeps well for about a week, after that there might be some more ice forming.

As the milkfats and protein provide the creaminess, instead of the amount of beaten in air in most churned icecreams, you will find that its very rich, so a small serving will suffice.

Ingredients

1 (8-ounce) package semisweet chocolate squares, coarsely chopped
1/4 cup strong brewed coffee
2 cups whipping cream
1 cup half-and-half
3/4 cup sugar, divided
3 tablespoons instant coffee granules
4 egg yolks

Preparation

Microwave chocolate in a 1-quart microwave-safe bowl at HIGH 1 1/2 minutes or until melted, stirring twice; stir in brewed coffee. Set chocolate mixture aside.

Bring whipping cream, half-and-half, 1/2 cup sugar, and coffee granules to a boil in a heavy saucepan over medium-high heat, stirring until sugar and coffee dissolve.

Beat yolks and remaining 1/4 cup sugar at high speed with an electric mixer until thick and pale. With mixer at low speed, gradually pour hot cream mixture into yolk mixture; return to saucepan.

Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, 6 to 8 minutes or until mixture thickens and coats a spoon. Remove from heat; stir in chocolate mixture. Cover and chill 2 hours.

Pour chilled mixture into freezer container of a 5-quart hand-turned or electric freezer. Freeze according to manufacturer's instructions.

Pack freezer with additional ice and rock salt, and let stand 1 hour. Serve ice cream with cookies, if desired.

It is recipe for making homemade ice cream. I hope you will like it.

Freeze fruit - whole berries work great, but you could probably use other fruit if cut into about 1/2 pieces.
Whip some cream, sweetened to taste
Throw frozen fruit in blender and crush them like ice cubes
Fold the fruit slush into the whipping cream
Ratio of fruit to cream is not critical. I'd start out with about 1:1 and then adjust future batches to taste.

The resulting texture is like soft serve ice cream and really delicious. You just have to eat it all at once, because if you try and freeze it, it'll turn into a rock hard lump.

Ice cream without eggs is not hard at all. You just need to add a tiny bit of alcohol, that keeps the ice crystals from forming.

My vanilla ice cream is just heated cream, sugar, salt, vanilla bean and one eighth a teaspoon or less of vanilla extract (in an alcohol base). I've been making it for years and haven't had a ice crystal yet.

Also I use a cuisinart (put the bucket in the freezer) model. And I add the extract after everything else is in the device's bucket.

I buy the vanilla beans online from a San Francisco saffron seller. So they're much cheaper/fresher than the old stuff in the spice aisle.

All worth the price for the lighting up the eyes effect on the family.

Alfrun, doesn't your ice cream get very hard after storing in the freezer? I have made ice cream like yours - it's great at first, but gets really hard in the freezer. Still good, if you let it soften up a bit before eating, but that's a hassle.

The OP asked for methods that don't need an ice cream maker.

Gina Cardoza wrote:Anyone have an easy & cheap way to make ice cream without an ice cream maker? And I don't really want the mess of using crushed ice & rock salt. I'm also interested in your healthy ice cream recipes. I've tried the method where you use a hand mixer and mix every half hour during the freezing process, but it's kind of a pain to do and takes many hours. So any other ideas/experiences would be great! Thanks!

Easiest I've made without any special equipment is using unpasteurised full fat sheep's milk. It's techincally froyo but so rich and creamy much more like ice cream.

Method: make yoghurt from the milk using buffalo or sheep yog to get it going. (No special gear needed, just a warm day or put it in an airing cupboard where it's warm. Chill the yog after it has set (take roughly 5 hours.)

Next mix the yoghurt with honey and mulberries and vanilla or whatever else you like. Put it in a fairly shallow bowl in the freezer. Leave one hour or so. Stir in from edges. Leave anohter hour or so. Repeat. Repeat about 3 times. Done.

Best eaten before it sets rock solid.

I found making rum and raisin ice cream doesn't form crystals if you put enough rum in it...

I've also had success with an egg yolk-and-cream variety where you whip the cream, beat the eggs, and fold the two together. The result is a sliceable ice cream loaf, but not too hard, and no ice crystals. It also doesn't contain refined sweeteners, if that matters to you. Pretty easy, with no special equipment needed. This one uses fresh blackberries, but any other fruit or topping could probably be used instead.

Blackberry Terrine

*adapted from Nigel Slater

170g blackberries
2 tsbps water
3 tbsps honey
1 1/4 cup heavy cream
3 large egg yolks
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Put the berries, water and 1 tbsp of the honey in a saucepan. Cover and heat until the water boils, turn it down to a simmer and let it bubble away for about 10 mins until the fruit is soft but not disintegrating. Drain off the liquid from the fruit and set aside to cool.
Using an electric whisk, beat the egg yolks and honey til thick. Stir in the vanilla.
In a separate bowl, whisk the cream until it’s thick but not stiff. It should still move around in the bowl.
Fold the cream into the egg mixture and pour into a loaf pan lined with cling film.
Spoon the slightly mushy berries into the liquid, swirl but don’t over mix.
Cover and freeze for six hours. Remove from tin and slice to serve.

Patrick- The ice cream does get hard but I put it up in single serving canning jars. The half cup size with the plastic screw on cap. So it softens quickly on the counter or in your hand.

I read the initial post, and was commenting on a reply from a later post about eggless ice cream being difficult to make. I briefly described my method and equipment to reduce ambiguity.

I always use my mixer. It's easy and tasty!

I know this is an oldest post but wanted to say thanks for the recipes

When my kids were young and had heard of milkshakes but not experienced them, I used to freeze bananas and put them in the blender with milk and such.  It was cold sweet and good.  I never tried putting it into the freezer to make it solid.  My children did not find out until they were teenagers - what everyone else was having when they were talking about milkshakes.

More recently, I've found some recipes on line for making ice cream using a cuisinart.  I think you first freeze most of the ingredients like the cream, possibly eggs if you have them and don't feel the need to cook them, or you could make the custard/anglaise thing mentioned above, freeze or mostly freeze, then into some kind of industrial strength processor.  I find the cuisinart is easier to get stuff out of than vitamix, and the vitamix creates heat it hits things so hard.

About using alcohol to prevent ice crystals, it's  akind of alcohol in antifreeze, so I'm thinking oooh, great idea.  Possibly if a person had food grade glycerine, or had tinctured vanilla or lemon verbena or other tasty herb in glycerine, that would be another way to affect the texture and prevent ice crystals, but IT'S AN UNTRIED CONJECTURE!  No experience to contribute on this.

If I were to set out today to try this, I'd freeze cream and rich milk, freeze some fresh fruit, have same fruit on hand unfrozen but chilled.  I'd throw the frozen fruit and frozen cream and frozen eggs in the cuisinart, add the tiniest bit of honey, and turn the thing on.  I'd see if the frozen ingredients needed more unfrozen ingredients to become smooth frozen yum, and adjust accordingly.

I mostly came to the thread to see what others post, and will be looking with interest at coming posts.
yay ice cream

I bought a Quisinart electric ice cream maker for $5, effortless.

My recipe is not really ice-cream. I make fruit-ice-lollies. Whatever fruit-smoothy you like you can fill ice-lolly- containers with. Put in the freezer and wait Healthy refreshment