I love icecream any day of the year, but in the summer time it becomes the quintessential treat that cools you down after a warm day in the sun. We’re already approaching Midsummer (happy Juhannus weekend everyone), but better late then never I say. As a kid, I had a small icecream churn of my own that used a turning handle with a metal barrel, that mixed the ice cream ingredients inside while the ice and the salt on the outside cooled the mixture rapidly. There’s really something scientific about how the salt interacts with the melting ice to drop the temperature faster, and I was really skeptical that smooth ice cream could be achieved without that clever little mechanism. I’ll be honest with you, I’d never done this before this week. But I wanted something cool and I wanted to know for once and for all if making homemade icecream without a special ice cream churn was possible. From this little experiment, I learned that not only is it possible, but it’s cheap and gives a lot of opportunity to experiment with flavor combinations.
Cost per serving: 0,50 e
Servings per recipe: +/- 8 (depending on how much ice cream you can eat in one serving)
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Ready in: 12 hours
What I think is great about this, is that the amount it makes is about the same as the amount you buy in one box of ice cream from the grocery store and costs about the same in total ingredients as the less expensive Pingviini brand. Now you might be thinking, well if it costs the same amount, why not save myself the trouble and buy the premade icecream? Try it for yourself and the answer will be obvious. This recipe will make icecream that far exceeds even the ’gourmet’ brands available in the grocery store.
Start with the basic ingredients: You will need 8 egg yolks, 6dl whipping cream, 2 dl sugar, and some flavors (fruit, vanila spice, chocolate, candy, etc.)
First separate the egg yolks from the egg. If you’ve never done this before, it’s easy. Just crack the egg in the middle, break it open slowly over a bowl, allowing the yolk to slide into one of the halves of the egg shell while the egg white falls into the bowl. Slip the egg yolk back and forth between the two egg shell halves until all of the egg white has fallen into the separate bowl. Add the egg yolks in another bowl to the sugar and blend well.
In a pan on high heat, heat the cream until frothing and bubbly on the sides, but do not allow to completely boil. Remove from heat. Slowly pour the cream into the egg yolk and sugar mixture, stirring constantly. Then pour the entire mixture back into the pan, place back on the heated stove again, and allow it to reach another slight stage of bubbling on the side, but then remove it.
Allow to chill for several hours until room temperature, or place in the refrigerator if you like. Afterwards, stir well and place in a freezer safe container (I used a leftover Turkish yogurt container) and place in a flat place in the freezer. After a few hours, remove, add flavorings, stir, and place back in the freezer. I used two very ripe bananas and about 2 dl of chopped walnuts and added those in the final stages before freezing.
To assure the smoothest results, you can periodically take the mixture out of the freezer and stir it well again, mixing the frozen parts on the top and sides with the less frozen parts. (I did this every three hours). Then let freeze overnight. When serving, take it out of the freezer a few minutes prior to scooping it, to soften it up.
Finally you’re ready to enjoy your homemade icecream. Please leave comments if you have any ideas on other flavor combinations. I have plans to try a green tea ice cream, Tupla candy ice cream, and maybe some mint chocolate. Have a great and sunny Juhannus, wherever you may be!
