Cherry Maple Walnut Ice Cream

Ingredients

• 1 qt of light cream
• 1/2 cup real maple syrup
• 1 can of cherries in syrup
• 2 handfuls of toasted walnuts

Methods

1. Separate the cherries from the syrup and give the cherries a chop.
2. Heat the cream until nearly boiling, then add the maple syrup.
3. Allow the cream to cool to room temperature, add the syrup from the canned cherries. Chill the mixture in the refrigerator.
4. Once the mixture is cold, turn on the ice cream machine! Churn, churn, churn.
5. The mixture will thicken in 30 minutes or. Add the chopped cherries and the lightly crushed toasted walnuts. Harden the mixture in the freezer.

My cream mixture curdled slightly overnight in the refrigerator. I'm guessing it was due to the syrup from the canned cherries. This recipe actually really overflowed my ice cream machine so that it wouldn't properly mix the cherries and walnuts in. I ended up mixing those in my hand, which caused a bit of deflating. Interestingly, the maple flavor wasn't as strong once the ice cream hardened. You may want to increase the amount of maple syrup.

Basic Chocolate Ice Cream

Ingredients

• 4 blocks of baker's chocolate, 100% cocao, unsweetened
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 quart cream
• 3 shots of espresso

Methods

1. Using the double-boiler method, melt the chocolate.
2. Once the chocolate is melted, slowly add the cream. The chocolate will freeze up but continue whisking until everything is homogeneous. Keep the heat on.
   
3. When the cream is just about to boil, add the sugar and espresso. Stir until the sugar is dissolved and allow the mixture to cool.
4. If you don't like the skin that forms, you could get rid of it. Otherwise, it doesn't really harm anything. Add the mixture to the ice cream maker and churn away!
5. Harden in the freezer.

The coffee should help accentuate the chocolate flavor. Feel free to increase the amount of chocolate if you so desire.

Mango Sorbet

Ingredients

• 1 large can of sweetened mango puree
• 1 can of mango slices in syrup or nectar

Methods

1. Open can of mango puree. Pour it into the ice cream machine.
2. Open can of mango slices. Pour about half cup of the syrup into the ice cream machine.
3. Churn about 30 minutes or until you can see it thicken up.
4. Dice 4-5 large slices of mango into small pieces. Add it to the machine.
5. Churn enough to mix. Remove the sorbet and harden in the freezer.

Easy! There's so much sugar in this thing that the sorbet won't freeze into a giant ice cube. So delicious.

Pear and Gorgonzola Ice Cream

Ingredients

• 2 Anjou pears
• 1/2 tablespoon lemon juice
  
• 1 shot of spiced rum
• 1 tablespoon water
• 1 cup apple jelly
• 3 cups light cream
• 1/4 lbs gorgonzola cheese

Methods

1. Make the pear puree: Dice the pears into small pieces. Add the lemon juice to prevent browning. Add the rum and water and poach on medium-low heat until mushy. Approximately 30 min.
2. Puree the poached pears in a food processor.
3. Heat cream until almost a boil, typical ice cream soup heating as before.
4. Add apple jelly and stir until it dissolves.
5. Stir in the pear puree.
6. Crumble the cheese and stir into the cream. It won't completely dissolve and little chunks of blue from the cheese look nice.
7. Chill mixture, put it in the ice cream machine for 30-50 minutes until the volume increases significantly. Harden in the freezer!
   

Curry Ice Cream

I'm a little late in posting this, but this ice cream has gotten at least 1 good review already. I made a small test batch a while back, but unfortunately, small volumes do not do well in the ice cream machine. I ended up with an ice block. Below is the "full-size" version.

You might be surprised by the spicy aftertaste of this ice cream. Try it once, after which you may end up adjusting the spice factor of the recipe.

Ingredients

• 1 qt light cream
• 1 cup packed light brown sugar
• 6 2/3 tablespoons (8 tsp) of curry powder
• 1 cup 1% milk

Methods

1. Heat cream until almost boiling. Turn down heat.
   
2. Add curry and brown sugar. Actually, you may want to add the cream to the brown sugar to try to avoid lumps. Eventually, however, all the lumps will dissolve in the cream. You can keep the heat on very low to help you along.
3. Refrigerate until the mixture is cold.
4. Add the milk before putting the chilled mixture in the ice cream machine.
5. Churn, baby, churn! Then harden in the freezer.
   

Milk Tea Ice Cream

Ingredients

• 1 qt of light cream
• 1.5 cups of sugar
• 7 tea bags (I used Lipton)
• 1 cup of 1% milk
  

Methods

1. Heat cream to 175 degF.
2. Turn off the heat and add sugar.
3. Steep the 7 tea bags in the hot cream. Stir and just let it sit for at least 30 minutes. Squeeze the tea bags before removing them, if you'd like.
4. Add the milk to thin the mixture a bit.
   
5. Let the mixture chill in the refrigerator overnight or leave it in the freezer for an hour or so.
6. Churn it in the ice cream machine! Approximately, say, 45-50 minutes.
7. Harden in the freezer.

Note: I've been finding that the viscosity affects the amount of air that can be put into the ice cream. Longer churn time is better, too. There seems to be thickening really happening at around 40 minutes and the last 10 minutes is where lots of air gets incorporated.

Carrot Cake Ice Cream

Ingredients

• 1 qt light cream
• 3 carrots shredded, about 1.5 cups
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup 1% milk
• 1/2 cup crushed walnuts (optional)
  

Methods

1. Gently heat cream, shredded carrots, brown sugar, sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg to about 150 degF.
2. Simmer until carrots are very tender and break apart easily, approximately 40 min. Let cool and add vanilla.
3. Chill overnight.
4. At this point, the mixture is quite thick. If put into the ice cream machine, it will be difficult for air to be churned into it. So, add the milk to reduce the viscosity of the mixture.
5. Put it in the ice cream machine until you can see a significant change in volume, about 40-45 minutes. Add walnuts during the last 10 minutes, if desired.
   
6. Let it harden in the freezer for several hours.
   

Coffee Ice Cream

Note: This recipe turned out to be too much for my 2-qt ice cream maker. It overflowed slightly, but the texture is amazing.

Ingredients

• 6 shots espresso (I used a moka. Yay!)
• 1 qt light cream
• 1.5 cup sugar

Methods

1. Heat light cream to 175 degF. In the meantime, make the 6 shots of espresso. You may use decaf beans if you want decaf coffee ice cream.
2. Turn of heat, add sugar and espresso. Stir
3. Let cool to room temperature, then chill in refrigerator overnight.
4. Pour into ice cream machine. Churn, baby, churn. This time, I let it go almost 45 minutes. So much air got churned in that it overflowed my machine. May need to cut down on liquids next time.
5. Harden the ice cream in the freezer for several hours. With all that great fat from the cream, it'll stay airy and creamy!
   

Black Sesame Ice Cream

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup ground black sesame powder
• 2 cups whole milk
• 2 cups light cream
• 1 cup sugar

Method

1. Put black sesame, whole milk, and light cream in a saucepan. Slowly raise heat to 175 degF while stirring.
2. Once it hits 175 degF or is at a low simmer, turn off heat.
3. Add sugar and stir to dissolve. Cool to room temperature.
4. Put mixture in the refrigerator to "age" overnight.
5. Pour the mixture into the ice cream machine. Let it run about 30 minutes.
6. Harden the ice cream by putting it in the freezer for at least 3 hours.