Making Ice Cream from Scratch

"If you made all the French fries you ate, you would eat them much less often... The same holds true for fried chicken, chips, cakes, pies, and ice cream. Enjoy these treats as often as you're willing to prepare them - chances are good it won't be every day."

- Michael Pollan

Homemade Ice Cream - Dall·e AI

One would think that the history and invention of ice cream would be relatively straight forward along with having a fun story associated with it. One would also assume that modern refrigeration would need to exist. Naturally the 1950's seems like ripe ice cream invention time and would have an interesting tale, such as:

Invented on a blistering hot summer's night in 1950's Iowa, dairy farmer Herbert I.C. Cream had copious amounts of leftover milk that was destined to spoil so he gave it to his kids to play with (prime 1950's entertainment), one of them, for no reason at all, poured some of the milk into a bucket and started stirring it with a paddle, an hour later this kid ran over to their father excitedly to proudly show them what had come of their impromptu science experiment, a thick substance which became known as cream, they added flavoring to it, threw it in their brand new General Electric freezer and the rest is history, ice cream was born.

Sadly, no such story exists. If you assumed the same assumptions that I did and also thought it had a modern backstory then you can proudly join me in the Wrong Assumptions club. Your membership card will be in the mail after a short 6 to 12 week waiting period. Unless it happens to be a day of the week that ends in "day" then the mailing date will be left as "to be determined" for a day that does not end in "day" which I assume will be at some point in the future.

Turns out, per the internet (and everything we read on the internet is surely true), there is no single invention of ice cream but the concept of longing to beat the heat with a cold and tasty treat is as old as time itself... or at least a few thousand years. Apparently, even around 2000 BC people were taking snow / ice, pouring honey on it and other flavorings for a tasty treat. Just an old school snow cone. Over time, that evolved. The closest resemblance to what we currently have, is probably Gelato, which came from 1600's Italy.

Humans started with snow cones and over time that evolved into what we currently consume as Ice Cream. I like the Herbert I.C. Cream story better.

My journey with attempting to make ice cream started a few years ago where I just really wanted to see if I could make something even remotely close to boutique ice cream. To start with, the flavor was there but it would always turn hard as a rock in the freezer which really brought the enjoyment of it down when you have to defrost it for an hour or two before you can dig into it without a chisel.

However I kept trying, time and time again, picked up some tips and tricks along the way and now I can make genuinely, really good ice cream. It's really not that hard but it is a lot of odd steps that make sense when you think about it but is one of those things in life that you don't know until you know.

If you want to science it, the whole name of the game is to remove as much water from it as possible (milk contains water), add delicious flavors as well as other ingredients that do not solidify when frozen.

You do not need an ice cream maker however you do need a kitchen stand mixer (unless you want to attempt to hand stir it which I would not recommend). Spread the process out over two days, plan on an hour of hands on time each day and you'll have your very own bursting with flavor ice cream before you know it.

Enough dilly dallying.

Here's how you can make your very own, boutique style ice cream to beat the heat of summer.

What You Need:

-Kitchen Stand Mixer

-2 Cups Whole Milk

-2 Cups Heavy Cream (or Heavy Whipping Cream)

-1/2 Cup Honey (or Maple Syrup if you don't happen to have mass amounts of excess honey from bee hives)

-1 Vanilla Bean (a real one)

-1/4 tsp Salt

-1 tsp Vanilla Extract

-Any other tasty flavorings you may want

-1 Mason Jar

What You Do*:

Day 1

1) Take the bowl from your stand mixer and put it in the freezer along with the paddle. They won't be used until tomorrow but we want them to be nice and frozen.

2) Take the 2 cups of Whole Milk, add to a saucepan, put over medium-high heat to bring to a simmer, once it starts simmering reduce heat to medium. We need to reduce water out of the milk, putting it over heat for an extended period of time is how you do that.

3) While your waiting for the milk to simmer, add in the 1/2 cup of Honey (or maple syrup), slice the vanilla bean sideways to expose the vanilla-ey goodness inside, scrape out all the black seeds with your knife, add to pot, afterwards add the vanilla pod to the pot as well. Also add the 1/4 tsp Salt.

4) Reminder that once you start getting small bubbles in the milk to reduce the heat to medium.

5) Stir it all up.

6) The goal is to get this down to 1 cup. So we're starting with 2 cups, we're evaporating out 1 cup of water with heat and we'll be left with 1 cup of a much thicker (and very delicious) concoction which will be the base of our ice cream.

7) Do Not Add Any Other Flavors At This Point In Time (that comes tomorrow).

8) As you patiently await the 2 cups to turn into 1 cup, stir it occasionally.

9) When you are down to 1 cup of a thick, brown concoction that has the consistency of caramel then the reduction is done!

10) Pour the resulting syrup into the mason jar (after taste testing of course, quality control is of the utmost importance with this recipe). Remove the vanilla bean shell at this point as well, its job is done.

11) Put the mason jar with the delectable creation in the fridge, where it will remain until tomorrow.

12) Put additional flavorings in the fridge (or freezer) to cool them down. If any of these flavorings need to be crushed up (such as cookies), do that before putting them in the fridge, but be sure to not crush them up too small. If they're too small, then when they're added to the cream tomorrow, they'll absorb moisture and they'll turn mooshy (which you don't want). With larger chunks, that will be limited to the edges and you won't notice it. Aim for quarter sized toppings (maybe slightly smaller). If using chocolate chips, use mini chocolate chips if possible. We're adding the additional flavorings / toppings to the fridge (or freezer) to cool them down. If we don't do this, then when they're added to the cream the warmth of them will melt the cream around it and you'll get icy spots in the ice cream (which you don't want). So by bringing the temperature down the of the additional flavorings / toppings, we're eliminating that from happening.

Day 2

1) Scream: ICE CREAM

2) Take the now very cold mixing bowl and paddle out of the freezer and into the stand.

3) Quickly add in 2 cups of Heavy Cream (or Heavy Whipping Cream).

4) Put the stand on a medium (or slightly faster) speed to start mightily stirring the cream. You want it to be as fast as possible without it splattering everywhere, which will mix in as much air as possible. Adding air = fluffier and creamier.

5) Keep a close eye on the cream as it's being stirred.

6) It's going to take probably 5 minutes of the stand stirring to get the first consistency we want, which is something called: Soft Peaks. As the stand stirs, you'll notice the cream appears to do nothing at first then after some painfully long minutes of watching the paddle go round and round, the cream will suddenly start thickening up. This happens fast so watch out. Keep it stirring until it gets just shy of the consistency of pudding or mousse (this is also how you make mousse by the way), meaning it's starting to get thick but it's not holding a shape at all. If you take your spoon and try to build a mountain, it's trying to hold a shape but it just instantly folds back in on itself. It's thicker than it was but it's not thick enough to build upon itself. This is the land of Soft Peaks.

7) When you have reached Soft Peak consistency, turn off the mixer (taste test) and add in the 1 cup concoction from the mason jar that was made yesterday, which will now have the consistency of peanut butter now that it's cold from the fridge.

8) Add in the 1 tsp Vanilla Extract.

9) Turn the stand mixer on a low setting to mix these new ingredients.

10) Keep the stand mixer on a low setting and keep a very, very, very close eye on it. It's only going to take a minute or two to get to the next stage, which is something called: Hard Peaks. Which is where the cream can essentially start to hold its own shape. If you take your spoon and try and build a mountain of cream, the cream will more or less hold a shape and allow you to build a mountain (more or less). It's very hard to get it to the exact right spot. Don't fret, it'll be tasty regardless. When it seems like you're in the land of hard peaks, turn off the mixer.

11) At this point, add in any additional (and pre-chilled) tasty flavorings (crushed cookies, chocolate chips, etc.) and give it a few more turns in the mixer (but not too many, just a very light mixing of the flavorings, we don't want the consistency of the cream to change much).

12) TASTE TEST - at this point the flavor should be a lot stronger and more intense then you imagine the ice cream being. The freezing (coming up) knocks down the flavor so we purposely made the concoction a lot sweeter and more flavorful to account for this, so it tastes perfect once frozen.

13) Pour into tupperware or whatever you have that is a container that will hold the ice cream and can be frozen.

14) Add to freezer.

15) Wait at least 4 hours (preferably overnight) before digging into this to see how it turned out - Patience Young Grasshopper.

16) The freezer is the ultimate test of how it turned out!

17) Enjoy! (let it sit out on the counter for 15 minutes before digging in and it should scoop out easily)

These steps, without any additional flavorings / toppings, will give you an exquisite, plain vanilla ice cream. Which is a good base to build upon for any other ice cream flavors. Start with the above then add in more flavorings / toppings for different ice creams.

If you happen to over mix the Day 2 steps then you'll just have really tasty whipped cream (oh no), and if you walk away, really forget about it for a long time then you'll just have really tasty butter (double oh no). The tasty whipped cream would be perfect for pancakes and the tasty butter would be perfect for baking. It does take a few tries to start to get the eye for what in the world Hard Peaks looks / feels like. Once you know, you know. It'll be delightful and scrumptious regardless.

If it did happen to turn really hard in the freezer, then you probably didn't reduce enough water out of the milk in the Day 1 steps. Taking the 2 cups of whole milk and reducing it down to 1 cup is essential for this not to freeze.

Speaking of not freezing, did you know that honey does not solidify in the freezing temperatures, it just turns into a thicker gel. Maple syrup is the same way. So by using honey (or maple syrup) instead of traditional sugar, we're adding sweetness while also actively adding something that does not solidify which is a win-win for ice cream making. Vanilla Extract also doesn't freeze (and adds more vanilla flavor).

Salt??? Why are we adding salt to ice cream? One may logically ask. To which the answer is: To make the flavor pop. That's all there is to it. If you want something to pop with flavor, salt is one of the main ways of doing that.

If you happen to want a creamier ice cream, then in the Day 2 steps use 2.5 Cups (or maybe even 3 Cups) of Heavy Cream / Heavy Whipping Cream.

If instead, you want a lighter, Gelato style ice cream, then in the Day 2 steps use 1 Cup of Heavy Cream / Heavy Whipping Cream and consider stirring it on a slower speed (so less air gets incorporated in).

This concludes your summer science project that is fun for humans of all ages that will leave you with  an ambrosial, mouthwatering, flavorsome tasty treat that Herbert I.C. Cream would be very proud of.

Keep it real out there as you beat the heat!

Important Notes: Hibiscus Rose is definitely the best flavor I've made so far with Raspberry Chocolate Chip not being far behind (both with the vanilla base). Pro tips for syrups: instead of having the mixer mix in any syrups, slowly drizzle the syrup into the container as you add the ice cream to it (right before freezing). This will layer in the syrup inside the ice cream (lasagna style), which will give you those fun flavor bursts when eating which is a lot more fun than having the syrup mixed in consistently.

Side Hustle Idea: Make and sell your own ice cream at your local farmers market or in local coffee shops or who knows where else around your town. Come up with super unique flavors that people can't get in any store bought ice cream (such as Hibiscus Rose).

*Keep in mind I have no idea if these instructions follow health regulations or not and you make it at your own risk. However I have made this quite a few times and have never gotten sick from it or anything of that nature. Make it at your own risk but you'll likely be just fine.