Craving homemade ice cream? It’s doable, but not as simple as it looks at first glance. Follow a few rules and you’ll get a smooth, high-quality result. The ingredients are basic, and most home cooks have milk or cream in the fridge. With so many fruits to try, you can experiment with this dessert every day.
Use homogenized dairy like condensed or powdered milk. If that doesn’t provide enough milk fat, add cream. Avoid butter, which can cause fat clumps in the ice cream.
Minimize the water in the base and maximize dry ingredients. Make that extra dry matter come from fat and protein, not sugar. Sugar lowers the mixture’s freezing point, so too much can keep water from freezing properly. The result is ice cream that doesn’t feel cold enough and melts too quickly.
How to Make Ice Cream Properly
- 1 tablespoon of sugar
- ½ cup of milk or cream
- ¼ teaspoon of vanilla (or another flavoring)
- 6 tablespoons of salt
- Ice
- 1 large bag and 1 smaller bag
Fill the large bag halfway with ice, then add the salt. Use coarse salt if you have it; regular salt works too. Mix the ice and salt and set the mixture aside. In a separate bowl, combine the milk or cream with the sugar and vanilla. Pour the mixture into the smaller bag and seal it tightly. Place the smaller bag inside the large bag so it’s fully surrounded by ice, then seal the large bag. Shake the bags vigorously for about 5 minutes. Use a towel to hold the bags, since they’ll get slippery and very cold. Remove the smaller bag and open it. Enjoy the ice cream right away.
Freeze the leftover ice cream only if necessary. Keep in mind that freezing lets ice crystals form after a few hours, which makes the ice cream grainy and less enjoyable.
