My friend Jim invited me and Tom over to join him, his wife, and his mother for dinner on the Fourth of July. Jim told me that his mother was planning to make her traditional Fourth of July berry pie. I of course offered to bring another dessert, and with berry pie already on the menu, I decided that a brownie with ice cream was the way to go.A lot of people I know own an ice cream maker that just sits on the shelf unused (for some reason, everyone tends to ask for one on their wedding registry even if they have no intention of ever using it). We had an electric ice cream maker when I was growing up, the kind that required the constant addition of ice and salt around the freezing canister. My mom made ice cream every once in a while and it froze rock hard in the freezer; all of us preferred going to 31 Flavors or buying ice cream at supermarket instead of making our own.
Then a few years ago I read an article in the LA Times food section reviewing home ice cream makers. They raved about how easy it was to make home made ice cream, and one of their top equipment picks was the Cuisinart ICE-20, an adorable little machine with a 1.5 quart freezing capacity. It was offered in shiny red, looked a little like R2D2, and only cost $49.95. I ordered one from Amazon.com that day.
My ice cream maker has a canister that you have to put in the freezer for 12-24 hours before you want to make ice cream. It does take up a little bit of room, but I keep the canister in there at all times in case the urge to make ice cream suddenly hits. (I also got a nice bonus from Amazon.com when I ordered my ice cream maker -- I got an extra freezing canister for free.)
I also bought the Ben & Jerry's Homemade Ice Cream & Dessert Book. The recipes in there are terrific, and I swear, it produces ice cream as tasty as what you buy for $3.50/scoop at Ben & Jerry's. For most of the recipes, you mix up a sweet cream base (of cream, milk, sugar, and egg), freeze the mixture in the ice cream maker (which usually takes about 25 minutes), and then add any big mix-ins (fruit chunks, Oreos, Heath Bar bits, chocolate syrup swirls, etc.) at the end. It's very easy. No cooking is involved, which is fine so long as you don't live in an area where egg safety is a problem.
Yesterday, I decided to try a new ice cream recipe from Gourmet, Cinnamon Toast Ice Cream. First, you make cinnamon toast croutons and crumbs. Then you make a cooked custard base, with cinnamon sticks and the crumbs, which are eventually strained out. Once the ice cream is frozen, the croutons are mixed in at the end. You end up with cinnamon toast flavored ice cream, with crunchy bits of cinnamon toast in every bite.
It's a little weird, like when you eat a Jelly Belly and you recognize the flavor, but because the texture is all wrong, your brain feels a big disconnect. This ice cream tastes exactly like cold, creamy, cinnamon toast. I served it with a Mexican Brownie, flavored with cinnamon and covered in a brown sugar topping.
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