We Americans have long been surprising Europeans and Americans with our habit to eat our favorite ice-cream, even in winter. So, in light of the onset of winter, let’s turn to the topic of making ice cream at home. Ice cream has a long history. Not without mentioning Alexander of Macedon, who liked to refresh himself with ice cream during his expeditions to hot countries. In the East there was already this dish in the form of fruit and juices mixed with snow or ice from the mountain peaks. It was the prototype of the modern ice cream cone.
Finely chopped and flavored with honey
It’s nice to say that the tradition of milk and cream ice cream comes from America, where in the olden days they served frozen milk, finely chopped and flavored with honey to the pancakes for Shrovetide.
For centuries, special ice cream makers have been used for making ice cream. It was a wooden barrel with paddles, inserted into another barrel and able to rotate in it. In the gap between the walls of the kegs laid ice and salt. The salt was needed to speed up the melting of the ice and give off the cold.
In the inner barrel, a mixture of beaten eggs with sugar, milk, cream, and flavorings was placed. It took hours of cranking to turn the inner tub with the paddles that whipped up the mass, and constantly adding ice to the outer tub as it melted.
I had a chance to see such an ice cream maker at my aunt’s house. Although there were plenty of industrially made ice cream on sale, our little group of kids enjoyed spinning the handle of this antique ice cream maker, taking turns when their hands got tired.
Because homemade ice cream was much tastier than regular ice cream. You can see for yourself if you make your own home-made ice cream with the help of a refrigerator and a mixer or a blender.
And eat the ice cream outside…
A young friend of mine, with whom I occasionally communicate through the Internet, has put up a list on her website of what she thinks a person needs to be happy. There’s stuff like this.
To choose a gift for a loved one.
To pet a cat.
Jumping with a parachute.
Knowing someone needs you.
To decorate one’s home, to make it cozy.
Eat ice cream outside…
How she’s right! Ice cream is necessary for happiness. The joy of life. It’s friendship, comfort, family.
For some reason few people know how delicious any ice cream becomes if you sprinkle it with crushed cookies when serving it. Cookies are taken as ordinary as those sold in traditional packets. Grate it on a grater or grind in a blender and serve with ice cream.
Some people like to sprinkle the ice cream with cornflakes.
The energy value calories of 100 grams of ice cream ranges from 420 to 1000 kJ 100-240 kcal , depending on the ingredients.
Creamy ice cream is a classic
You can add cocoa, vanilla, honey, whipped egg whites, citrus juices, puree or berry juices…
It takes one large egg to make 4-5 servings of ice cream. Using a mixer, you mix it with sugar until smooth 120 g of granulated sugar, or 3/5 of a standard glass . Warm up the milk and cream mixture one part glass each to 80 degrees and add it to the egg-sugar mixture. Put it on low heat and bring it back to 80 degrees, stirring continuously.
Soak a half teaspoon of gelatin in cold water. When it had swollen, pour a little milk, and, while stirring, keep it on a low heat until it became homogeneous. By this time the egg-milk mixture will have cooled a bit. Add the dissolved gelatine and stir thoroughly.
Gelatin plays the role of “stabilizer” in this recipe. By actively absorbing water and reducing it to a colloidal state, it prevents the formation of flavor-damaging large ice crystals when frozen.
Instead of gelatin as a stabilizer you can use starch a teaspoon of starch without the top of a few tablespoons of cold boiled water . After the starch particles have swollen, add one and a half tablespoons of boiling milk and stir thoroughly over low heat until it thickens.
So, add the “stabilizer” to the egg and milk mixture and strain everything through a fine strainer. Whip the mixture with a mixer, cover the bowl and put it in the freezer in the fridge.
Before serving, you can whip the mixture again with a mixer or blender if you find it too thick. It remains to put it in ice-cream bowls and decorate every portion with whipped cream, frozen berries from summer storage or sprinkle with nuts chopped in a blender.
“Lazy” homemade ice cream
Mix 200g of heavy cream with thawed strawberries, strawberries or raspberries, beaten with a blender to puree with sugar to taste.
If among the frozen “gifts of summer” in your refrigerator there are no berries, you can do with two or three tablespoons of strawberry, strawberry or raspberry jam.
Now add as a “stabilizer” gelatin or starch, cook it as mentioned above, pre-strain it through a fine strainer. Pour the mixture into moulds and put in the freezer.
Such improvised ice cream is ready when the mixture takes on the consistency, as they say, “in a crumb”. May be served.
