nom nom nom

Things I like:

Ice Cream!

I love ice cream, love it. I love the variety of flavors, I love the different textures, I love the smell. In Kansas City I have two favourite ice cream parlors: Murray's in westport and Paleteria Tropicana off of southwest boulevard....delicious! After we moved to Columbia we discovered Sparky's which is uber delightful ( I was sold when I tasted their lavender honey and their ghiradelli and red wine ice creams). Greg and I ventured down to Jefferson City for a treat at Central Dairy where not only are the prices beyond reasonable but the icecream is plentiful and superb. Central dairy offers such a large variety of choices including ( but certainly not limited to): Bear Claw, Spumoni, Texas pecan, and all of your regulars ( i.e. chocolate, strawberry, vanilla, neopolitan, and sherberts of every color). Following our journey to the Central Dairy we heard of an ice cream shop on campus called Buck's. The icecream at Buck's is reasonable and is just fine although sometimes a little icy.

Unfortunately Ice cream is expensive and I am once again a poor student. For my birthday my dad gave me an ice cream maker. I love it. The first attempt was a complete failure but since then I've made Blackberry mango icecream as well as peach. ( I prefer the blackberry mango). Although making the ice cream at home is certainly not cheap ( About 3 dollars or more in ingredients...I find the most expensive ingredient to be cream. I'm going to see if I can replace the cream with a less expensive alternative), making the ice cream lets me try flavours that I've never seen in stores.

I expect my ice cream making will occur for years to come. I need to invite more people over otherwise I'll turn into a whale.


Blackberry Mango icecream
materials:
2.5 cups of sliced blackberries ( slicing blackberries turns into cutting them into chunks)
0.5 cups of sliced mango minus the skin
4 tbsps of lime juice ( I prefer fresh)
2.75 cups of heavy cream (chilled)
1.5 cups whole milk (chilled)
1.5 cups of sugar
1.5 tsps pure vanilla extract

Tools:
hand mixer
bowls
ice cream maker
knives
measuring cups
the usual suspects

methods:
combine the blackberries and mangoes with the lime juice and 0.5 cups of the sugar in a small bowl. Stir gently ( or hard who cares). Let the concoction sit for 2 hours to allow the berries and whatnot to macerate.

After 2 hours strain the berries but keep the juice! Mash or puree half of the berries. ( If you want a seedless ice cream you'll have to find a way to remove the seeds at this point.)

Using the hand mixer combine the milk and the remaining sugar. Mix for 2-3 minutes ( I like mine to get frothy). Stir in the cream, half of the berries plus the reserved juice and the vanilla.

Set up your ice cream machine and turn it on. Pour the mixture in and wait. After about 20-25 minutes add in the leftover berry mixture. Run for five more minutes. Scoop out and let freeze for about 2 hours ( to harden ice cream further...the results from the machine are like a very very soft serve).

Recipes differ depending upon the icecream machine. I make my ice cream with a cuisinart 2-quart ice cream, frozen yogurt and sorbet maker.

For peach ice cream use 3 cups of peaches instead of the mango and blackberry, and exchange the lime juice for lemon.


The peaches we picked up from the Farmer's market
We picked out a big box of "seconds", the peaches that aren't as nice. Seconds are much less expensive and are just as tasty.
The peach skins and pits
mmmm looks gross. The peach bits and juice
In the ice cream maker, churning
nearly done!