Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About The CommonSenseMom's Homemade Ice Cream

I've been making homemade ice cream for the past several months. In this post, I've put together what I've learned. You can see my current best recipe, some flavor variations, my upcoming recipe tweaks, etc.


The CommonSenseMom's Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream

¼ c. cold water
2 T. unflavored gelatin
3 c. whole milk
1 c. sugar
¼ t. salt
1 t. vanilla
1 c. heavy whipping cream

Put cold water in small shallow bowl. Sprinkle the gelatin over the cold water and let sit. Put the milk in a glass mixing bowl. Microwave until it reaches 160 degrees. In my microwave, it takes 7 minutes. Add the softened gelatin, sugar, and salt to the hot milk and whisk for 2 full minutes. Add vanilla and cream to milk mixture. Whisk until thoroughly combined.

Chill mixture in refrigerator until cold. Put mix into ice cream maker and freeze according to manufacturer’s instructions.

Makes about 13 half cup servings. Each serving has approximately 158 calories, 72 calories from fat, 8 g. total fat, 5.4 g. saturated fat, 33 g. cholesterol, 20 g. carbohydrate, and 20 g. sugars. This is relatively close to the nutritional data for Edy's Grand Vanilla Ice Cream.


Variations

Chocolate: Add 2/3 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips to milk before heating. Slightly increase heating time.

Chocolate/Fudge Swirl: When putting the ice cream into its storage container, alternate layers of ice cream and fudge topping.

Chocolate Chip: Add 2/3 c. miniature semi-sweet chocolate chips during the last minute of churning. After removing the dasher, mix with your spoon a little to make sure the chips are evenly distributed.

Cookies & Cream: Crush about 20 Oreos. Add during the last minute of churning. After removing the dasher, mix with your spoon a little to make sure the cookies are evenly distributed.

Mint Chocolate Chip: Replace vanilla extract with ½ t. vanilla extract, ½ t. peppermint extract, and 3 drops green food coloring. Add 2/3 c. miniature semi-sweet chocolate chips during the last minute of churning. After removing the dasher, mix with your spoon a little to make sure the chips are evenly distributed. Note that you want peppermint extract, not mint extract.

Chocolate Marshmallow: Use the chocolate variation above. When putting the ice cream into its storage container, alternate layers of chocolate ice cream and marshmallow topping.

Strawberry: Thaw 8 ounces of frozen, sweetened strawberries. (They come in a 16-ounce tub in the freezer section of WalMart). Mash the strawberries with their juice. Add to the ice cream during the last 2 minutes of churning. After removing the dasher, mix with your spoon a little to make sure the strawberries are evenly distributed.

Cinnamon: Add 1 t. cinnamon along with the vanilla. Serve over apple pie.

Custard: Beat 2 eggs well. Add the eggs to the milk prior to heating. Whisk together thoroughly. You may have to slightly increase the heating time. Increase sugar by 2 T.


Upcoming tests

I will try replacing ¼ c. of the sugar with ¼ c. honey. I want to see if that will keep it from freezing so hard.

I am going to experiment with adding non-fat dry milk powder to increase the creaminess.


Some of my related posts

Homemade Ice Cream is Too Hard
Making Ice Cream: Some Useful Tools
Product Review: KitchenAid Ice Cream Maker Attachment
A Good Basic Ice Cream Recipe to Start With

A Good, Basic Ice Cream Recipe to Start With

This is the basic vanilla ice cream recipe that I started out with. Excellent.

Basic Vanilla Ice Cream

1 cup whole milk, well chilled
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 cups heavy cream, well chilled
1 - 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract, to taste

In a medium bowl, use a hand mixer or a whisk to combine the milk and granulated sugar until the sugar is dissolved, about 1 - 2 minutes on low speed. Stir in heavy cream and add vanilla to taste. Turn machine on, pour mixture into freezer bowl through ingredient spout and let mix until thickened, about 25-30 minutes. Enjoy!

Here are some of my related posts:

Homemade Ice Cream is Too Hard
Making Ice Cream: Some Useful Tools
Product Review: KitchenAid Ice Cream Maker Attachment
Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About The CommonSenseMom's Homemade Ice Cream

More About Cornbread

Maybe you've tried my cornbread recipe. If so, you've probably noticed that fresh cornbread is wonderful, but it gets dried out much more quickly than normal bread. Here's our solution: freeze immediately!

As soon as the cornbread is cool, or maybe even still slightly warm, remove meal sized portions from the pan. Place in plastic bags and freeze.

Just take them out of the freezer again when you need them. Give them about an hour to thaw on the counter. If still slightly cold, put in the microwave for a few seconds to warm. Almost as good as fresh-baked.

The CommonSenseMom's Best Cornbread Recipe

Alissa and I have tweaked the 4-H cornbread recipe to come up with a real winner!

The CommonSenseMom's Best Cornbread Recipe

1 c. all purpose flour
¾ c. cornmeal
½ t. salt
2 t. baking powder
½ cup sugar (scant)
1 egg
1 c. skim milk
¼ cup canola oil

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Grease the pan, including the sides. Mix together the flour, cornmeal, salt, baking powder, and sugar. Add egg, milk, and oil. Stir just until mixed. Spread into 8 X 8 or 9 X 9 inch pan (we like to use a square glass baking dish). Bake about 25 minutes. The cornbread is done when the top is a light, golden color, begins to pull away from the edge of the pan, and springs back when lightly touched.

Sometimes we double this recipe and bake in a 13 X 9 inch pan.

Chicken Alfredo Bake Recipe

This serves a crowd--twice! Cut the recipe in half if you don't want an extra casserole for the freezer.

Chicken Alfredo Bake

3 lbs. cooked chicken, chopped
1 lb. package Penne pasta, cooked
13.5 oz. package whole wheat Penne pasta, cooked
2 c. shredded Italian cheese
½ c. Parmesan cheese
8 T. butter
6 T. flour
6 chicken bouillon cubes
1 t. dried basil leaves
2 t. garlic powder
¼ t. pepper
8 c. milk
½ package frozen spinach (optional)

Melt butter in large sauce pan. Stir in flour, basil, garlic powder, and pepper. Gradually stir in milk and add bouillon cubes. Cook and stir until slightly thickened. Add chicken, spinach, and Parmesan cheese. Grease two 3-quart casserole dishes. In each dish, layer pasta, chicken/sauce mixture, and Italian cheese. Repeat layers. Cover one dish securely with plastic wrap and foil. Freeze. Bake the other one at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. Each casserole serves 8-10.

The CommonSenseMom's Frozen Fruit Cups Recipe

This frozen fruit slushie salad is one of my kids' favorites. It's easy to make...just make sure you've got room in your freezer. Also, it's a great make-ahead dish for entertaining. I often double the recipe and serve at parties.

1 large can fruit cocktail (I use the lower sugar version)
1 can frozen strawberries (sweetened--they come in a tub at WalMart)
1 can 7-Up (you can use diet if you like)
2 sliced bananas
1 small can orange juice concentrate (or 1/2 of a large can - I use country style)
1 small can mandarin oranges

Combine all ingredients together in large bowl. Ladel into individual cups (I use Solo 9-ounce clear plastic disposable cups). Freeze. Remove from freezer to begin thawing 2 hours prior to serving. You want them to still have ice crystals in them--like the consistency of a slushie. Makes 12 servings.

The CommonSenseMom's Recipe for Egg-Free, Dairy-Free Rolls

I generally use an egg and dry milk powder in my bread products, but I recently made these for a family with egg and dairy allergy issues. This recipe can be made into rolls or a loaf of bread.

7/8 c. warm water
2 T. olive oil
2 1/2 T. honey
1/2 t. salt
1 1/2 c. bread flour
1 1/2 c. King Arthur white whole wheat flour
1 t. vital wheat gluten
1 1/2 t. yeast

You may need to add a little flour or water to get the dough just right. I let the bread machine mix and knead it and do the first rise. Then, I took it out and shaped it into 16 rolls. Cover with greased plastic wrap, let rise for about an hour. Bake at 350 for 21 minutes.

The CommonSenseMom's Bread Pudding Recipe

The CommonSenseMom's Bread Pudding Recipe

12 cups 1-inch bread cubes
6 cups milk
3/4 c. melted butter
1 1/2 c. sugar (maybe a little extra)
6 eggs, beaten
1 T. vanilla
1 t. nutmeg
1 t. cinnamon

Thoroughly whisk together all ingredients except the bread cubes in a glass bowl and heat in the microwave for about 5 minutes. Put bread cubes in a large bowl. Pour the heated liquid over the bread cubes and gently combine until liquid is well distributed. Let stand 10 minutes. Transfer to greased baking dish (mine was 11 X 14 X 2 1/2). Lightly cover with foil and bake on top rack of oven at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. Remove foil and bake another 15-20 minutes until knife inserted in center comes out clean. After bread pudding has cooled to "warm", drizzle with a thin powdered sugar icing (I didn't measure at all...just powdered sugar, milk, vanilla).

I keep the heels and stale bread in a bag in the freezer until I am ready to use them. Then I thaw and cut them into cubes. My bread is homemade and mostly made with white whole wheat flour. More fat in your milk will give you a richer bread pudding.

Instead of topping with powdered sugar icing, you can serve with warm maple syrup (the real thing) or a vanilla sauce. We preferred the powdered sugar icing to the vanilla sauce.

If I were going to use a 9 X 13 pan, I would make 2/3 of this recipe and adjust the baking time.

Use Your Breadmachine to Knead Play Dough

You can use your breadmachine to knead your homemade play dough!

First of all, did you know that homemade play dough is way better than store bought? It is so much more cohesive, and you aren't left with colorful little crumbs all over your kitchen floor each time the kids play with it.

Here is the recipe I use:

1 c. flour
1/2 c. salt
2 tsp. cream of tartar
1 c. water
2 T. salad oil
Several drops food color

Mix dry ingredients in heavy saucepan. Next, add all liquid ingredients. Cook over medium heat until dough pulls away from sides of pan (about 3 minutes). Immediately remove from pan and place in the breadmachine to knead. Allow it to knead until it is all one even color. Store in an airtight plastic container (I use ready-to-spread frosting containers).

If you do this very often, the cream of tartar could get expensive. I buy mine in bulk at a health food store. Much cheaper than those little jars in the spice aisle of the supermarket. Make sure you use a 1/2 cup of salt (not 1/2 teaspoon). I made that mistake once, and we ended up with a moldy glob within a couple of days.

Pico de Gallo Recipe

I made a Pico de Gallo last night to go with our turkey burritos. I didn't really measure anything, so I'm estimating the amounts here. It turned out really great!

2 fresh Roma tomatoes, finely chopped
2 T. fresh onion, finely chopped
2 T. banana pepper, finely chopped
1 t. dry cilantro
2 t. vinegar
1/2 t. sugar
dash of salt
dash of pepper