Easy homemade ice cream.

May 18, 2012

What You Need

Ingredients
1 pint (usually a half recipe) of ice cream mix, well chilled
Easy Ice Cream Mix Options:
• Eggless Cornstarch-Based Mix
• Rich Ice Cream Base with Eggs and Cream
• Sweetened Condensed Milk Ice Cream Base

Equipment
Very large mixing bowl or stockpot
Small 1-quart bowl
Chopped ice
3/4 cup rock salt or kosher salt
Electric hand mixer OR whisk
Towel

Instructions

1. Fill the large bowl about halfway with ice. Stir in 3/4 cup rock salt.

2. Nestle the smaller bowl in the ice. Try to get almost completely buried in the ice. Fill the smaller bowl halfway with ice cream mix (use at most 1 pint of mix).

3. Use the hand mixer to beat the mix for 10 minutes. You may find it helpful to half cover the bowl with a towel, to help prevent spattering. The mix should get very cold to the touch, although it will probably not start transforming into actual ice cream. (Note: If you don’t have a hand mixer, then you can use a whisk, but you will need to whisk for at least 15 minutes. Great upper arm workout!)

After you have aerated and chilled the mix for about 10 minutes, cover with a towel and place the entire set of nested bowls — large and small — in the freezer. Freeze for 45 minutes.

4. Remove the bowls from the freezer. Draw a spoon across the top of the ice cream mix. It’s probably the consistency of loose pudding, especially on top.

5. Mix again with the hand mixer for 5 minutes. At this point the mixture should be the texture of soft-serve ice cream.

6. Remove the small bowl from the large bowl, and cover the top with plastic wrap touching the surface of the ice cream. Freeze for an additional two hours, or overnight, before serving.

Additional Notes:
• Remember, as always with homemade ice cream: The more fat in the ice cream, the creamier it will be, regardless of churning method. A custard ice cream with all cream and egg yolks will turn out less icy than a milk-based mix. I actually used a milk-based mix here (2 cups milk, 1 cup cream) and while this is more to my taste, it definitely turned out a little icier than a more fatty mix would have. 
• On ice: I used about 6 standard-sized ice cube trays (72 ice cubes, smashed up a bit in a bag beforehand) to fill my big bowl.