Favorite home made ice cream recipes?

@DaveInSoCal Ooh, sounds good! What makes Vietnamese cinnamon special?

@luvche21 Maybe it's a colloquialism for some mood altering spices?

KuoH

@luvche21 http://www.thespicehouse.com/spices/vietnamese-cassia-saigon-cinnamon-whole-cracked-ground

"This cinnamon, Cinnamomum loureiroi, is by far our most popular, and we're proud of its sweet, spicy flavor and freshness. If we had to pick a signature product, this might be it.

When we grind this Vietnamese Cinnamon bark, it produces a rich, dark cinnamon with quite a bit of spiciness. The overall flavor of the Vietnamese cinnamon is similar to the Chinese Tung Hing cassia cinnamon, but the oil content of the Saigon variety is higher and it is much more powerful."

@editorkid I definitely haven't tried anything other than the cheapest cinnamon I can find at the store. Hm... I may have to try out a fancy cinnamon sometime!

I've always been a big fan of horchata, or a good European "milk with rice" dessert with cinnamon on top.

@luvche21 I admit, I definitely can only tell the difference if I'm aware of it going in. Especially with ice cream, where the temperature is dulling our taste buds a bit anyway. But I really like a strong cinnamon taste anywhere, so I've been buying this kind after telling myself "Sure, it makes a difference."

@sammydog01 And what is the flavor?

@luvche21 It's dark chocolate with almonds, pecans, chocolate chips, and raisins. They used to sell it in pints but I'm guessing it was too expensive to make.

@sammydog01 I'd go for it, except the raisins -- I've never been a fan of ruining things with raisins ;)

@luvche21 There is actually a discussion about raisins in the book. Ben hated them, but the general public's reaction was mixed.

@sammydog01 I'm glad I'm not alone in this. There is a time and place for raisins though, but I don't think I would enjoy them in ice cream, and definitely not in cinnamon rolls.

@luvche21 Getting raisins when you're expecting chocolate chips is definitely an unpleasant surprise. However, when I'm expecting a raisin cookie, they can be delightful.

@jqubed Yes, raisin oatmeal cookies are tasty. I'm still not sold on raisins in ice cream yet though :)

@katylava @luvche21 I'm also interested, plus the creamsicle recipe :)

@katylava @metageist OK, now you've got me started on one of my favorite things: making (and eating) homemade yogurt. It's super simple, inexpensive, healthy, and tasty. This is probably more than you want to know:

You basically boil milk (to kill any bacteria in the milk), cool it down to ~120-125 degrees, add yogurt start (from any plain yogurt that has live cultures), then incubate it for ~8 1/2 hours (that seems to be the magic number for us). Then you have homemade yogurt! Make sure to let it cool before eating it, warm yogurt isn't very tasty.

You don't need a yogurt machine, although they are handy and pretty cheap. It became easier for us after a while just to wrap our large tupperware container in a blanket, and put it in the oven overnight (with the oven off), and it makes it nice and easy.

We tend to make half a gallon of yogurt at a time, and it ends up costing the same as the milk that we buy, since you don't need anything extra, other than whatever you want to flavor it with (if you want to).

My favorite yogurt start (so far) is Danon Oikos "Greek", and I've tried quite a few. My favorite bacteria is l. bulgaricus, from Bulgaria, where yogurt was originally invented. I used to live there a while back, which got me started on this whole thing.

The best part is you can keep the same culture going for quite a while, by using a scoop of yogurt from the previous batch when making a new batch. We had our last culture going for 2 1/2 years, then we moved across the country (and almost brought it with us.

Basically, I started a yogurt blog a while back (yeah, I'm that cool...... .....right??), but haven't been good at keeping it up. I've got a lot of recipes that I'm planning on adding once I get time to get it going again. It was doing pretty well for a while and still gets hits fairly often. It had a number of recipes on baking with yogurt (in addition to making yogurt).

@metageist We've been playing around with the recipe, but the most recent version uses:

• 2 1/4 cups plain yogurt
• 2 1/2 cups OJ
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla

Just mix it then stick it in the ice cream machine, and it's great. It's basically a frozen version of our Yogurty Orange Julius on our yogurt blog, which is probably my favorite drink ever: http://yogurtyogurtyogurt.blogspot.com/2013/05/yogurty-orange-julius.html

@luvche21 wow, you make it sound way easier than the stuff i've read about it. i really want to make my own yogurt. my favorite yogurt has 5 kinds of active cultures... does that matter for a starter?

@katylava yes, it is MUCH easier than most things say about it. Maybe I'm not as purist in my yogurt making?? It's really simple. I can get the heating/cooling/culture/cleanup done in 30 minutes, but a bulk of that is heating/cooling time. You don't have to sterilize things every time either like a lot of places say to do.

I'm planning on writing up full instructions for our current process at some point for our blog, but it may be a while before I finish it. I'd be happy to give you any more details if you need them.

As for having 5 active cultures, that doesn't matter. I have tried that one as a start, and didn't like it as much as Oikos (which I believe has multiple cultures as well). I actually don't like the flavor of Oikos until I've used it as a culture to make my own yogurt. Maybe it's something they add to it?

If you're going for making "Greek" yogurt, there is one extra step once you've made your yogurt - strain it for a couple hours in a cheese cloth or tightly knit strainer of some sort (preferably non-metal). I tried that for a bit, but got tired of the extra work, and since it doesn't change the flavor (only thickness), it didn't matter much to me.

To make a thicker/creamier yogurt, you can also add instant dried milk (is that what it's called? the kind that mixes in instantly and doesn't leave clumps) into your milk after boiling and cooling, and right before adding the yogurt start.

Milk fat percentages matter too - whole milk is heavenly, but we usually use 2%. 1% makes it much thinner.

Plus, all you need is about 1-2 tablespoons of yogurt for your start (it doesn't need to be precise), so it doesn't take much at all.

Too much info again? haha

@luvche21 thanks! not too much info at all :)

i've been thinking of making my own yogurt for a long time but i thought it was much more difficult. i think it's the way you present it that makes it seem so easy, not necessarily that the steps are different. you go over the basics first then talk about the details and the other things you can do. everything else i read was just overwhelming.

the thickness is important to me, i'd definitely try the powdered milk first, and if that wasn't good enough, then the straining. i'd probably try whole milk too. i only eat about half a cup of yogurt a day, for breakfast, so not worried about over-doing the fat.

@katylava Thanks, I thought the same thing when I was researching how to make it the first time. It boils down to (no pun intended) boiling/cooling/incubating, and the rest are details that can be changed as needed. Most sites that explain it are very very long and overwhelming, and some do give extra steps that I haven't found useful.

The powdered milk won't make it near as thick as "Greek" yogurt, but it does thicken it. And straining isn't too much extra work. You do need to make more than you think you would, since a lot of whey drips through (maybe half or so).

@luvche21 This is amazing and fascinating. Thank you for imparting your knowledge, I'm going to try this once I can get up to Seattle to buy my favorite Greek yogurt as a start. It's the most amazing food I've ever tasted, but pricey. And on our limited budget, it's a rare treat. I did find a store they sell it from for much cheaper than it is online, though,so yay. But you've given me courage.

@jaremelz Do it! :) It's REALLY not that hard, and quite inexpensive. What's your favorite Greek yogurt? Remember, that for some reason, it tends to taste a little different than the start that you use. So, if it doesn't taste exactly like your favorite start, try a couple different kinds until you find something you like.

Being on a limited budget was a major reason why I started making yogurt. Half a gallon of yogurt will now cost you the same as half a gallon of milk ($1 to $1.50, right?), and I think that's pretty amazing.

When you get ready to give it a shot, feel free to message me here with any questions. Or, check out our yogurt blog at yogurtyogurtyogurt.blogspot.com for more tips (although currently the main instructions there are for using a yogurt machine, which is totally not required). I'll (hopefully) be updating that very soon with better instructions without using a yogurt maker (which is our current process). Feel free to message me there as well, it will get routed right to my email so I can respond quickly.

Best of luck!

@luvche21 The name of the company is Ellenos. It's almost too thick and wonderful to be called yogurt, it's almost like cheesecake. They're a small local company who uses local ingredients. And the flavours are insane. Lemon crumble, caramel, marionberry. Sigh.

@jaremelz Ooh, sounds fantastic! You can get your own yogurt really thick and creamy too, just strain it longer. I've gotten it thicker than cream cheese, and used it to make a super tasty cheeseball. mmmmm

So, I've had this yogurt business idea rolling around for a while that sounds like of like Ellenos -- it would basically be creating famous dessert flavored yogurts -- apple crisp, lemon bar, blueberry pie, etc. It would end up being fruit in yogurt, with a crumbly/crunchy topping added on when you eat it (basically the crunchy part on top of the apple crisp). I've done a few at home, and they're super tasty!

@luvche21 that's a fabulous idea! You obviously have a passion for it and the knowledge base. And Ellenos has been growing steadily in just a couple years. Finding local products and working them in is key these days. Damn, I really wish I had some right now!

@metageist I don't think I've found a chocolate ice cream that I like. What makes it good?

The vanilla custard/vanilla/pretzel sounds amazing. Any chance I could get a recipe to try out?

@luvche21 it's a less sugary chocolate I guess. I used 4 tbsp cocoa powder and a 3oz bar (melted) of Theo salted dark chocolate. Kind of standard vanilla custard base

@luvche21 I make alot of custard because I have tons of eggs from my chickens. So my standard vanilla custard is 2 cups cream, 1 cup whole milk, 4 egg yolks, 1/2 or sometimes 2/3 cup sugar, some amount of vanilla. (I wing it alot). Make the ice cream like normal in the machine, but layer melted Nutella in before you freeze. I haven't decided if I like adding crushed pretzels as is or freezing them first so they don't get so squishy.

@metageist Do you cook the custard before freezing it? I've never made a frozen custard before... only ice cream from cream, milk, and sugar.

Sounds good!

@luvche21 yeah I usually cook the custard to put in the refrigerator and also put the ice cream bowl in the freezer at the same time. Then the next day I make ice cream and pop it in the freezer to harden.
Alot of ice cream recipes on the Internet are custard recipes, if they have eggs. Be careful not too cook the custard into scrambled eggs :)

@NigelF There are some things that bacon shouldn't be in, and I would include ice cream in that list.

Fresh peach is fantastic though!

@luvche21 i thought the same thing until i tried candied bacon and maple syrup on ice cream.

@katylava I've tried candied bacon on a maple oatmeal cake that was pretty good. I'm still hesitant about it on ice cream though. But, if the opportunity ever presents itself, I'll give it a shot!

@NigelF I had maple bacon ice cream last week. It was surprisingly good. The occasional chunk of cold chewy bacon was interesting.

@luvche21 The trick is to make the bacon first and add some of the rendered fat to the ice cream base. Then add the maple syrup and bourbon to a pot with the bacon and candy it.

@NigelF I can feel my belt stretching just by reading this.

KuoH

@NigelF Next, grill the peaches first. (Coaxing out a little smoke will add to the effect.)

@darkzrobe No, I made it in an older 2 quart Cuisinart ice cream maker that we have. I don't even know how much the Oster holds.

We keep changing the recipe around a bit, so feel free to play around. Also, we did not use "Greek" yogurt, which would change the consistency quite a bit if you do.

Note: If you haven't made a frozen yogurt before, don't go in expecting ice cream - yogurt freezes much different than cream.

If you've got a genuine, good balsamic vinegar, that really is perfect with this.

@editorkid I had a dessert once in Prague that involved flambéed strawberries and black peppercorns served with ice cream. I wouldn't have come up with that combination, but it was fantastic. I bet this is good.

@jqubed ooh, Prague is so wonderful. I had a little less than 2 days there, but it was amazing. What a beautiful city!

@luvche21 My first time there was fantastic. At that restaurant the next table over was occupied by The Rock and about 15 other people. So much good food in Prague, and so cheap. We rented a nice apartment right on the Vlatava river that cost us $100 for 3 nights and included transportation to/from the airport. It was on the island where the opening of the first Mission Impossible movie was filmed; we're pretty sure our building was one side of the alley where the lady got stabbed at the gate. My last night there we stayed out until 4 am salsa dancing on a barge in the river. Walking back to the apartment and crossing over the famous old bridge a huge flock of birds flew an arch over us and my friend told me to never forget that moment because I would never again experience that in my life. I didn't have as much fun the next time because I was with a very frugal cousin; my parents used points to get us a free room on the concierge level of a hotel. Since there were always free snacks at the hotel she never wanted to eat out, so we only ate at restaurants twice, once at McDonald's and once when we met a friend of hers. It was still a fun trip, but paled in comparison to the first time.

@jqubed Whoa, my stay there was nothing like your first -- mainly just checking out downtown. I actually don't remember the food much, other than these potato pancake things from a street vendor. The people I was with were generally picky when it came to food.

That apartment sounds like a steal of a deal! Any plans to go back?

@jqubed That first trip sounds like it was a great one. I'd love to see Prague but honestly, I've traveled so little that it's probably fifth or sixth on the list. Sorry that the second trip was underwhelming... I've learned to be picky about my travel companions because my mom enjoyed traveling with us kids in the high school and college years but had the philosophy of "Find a safe Italian restaurant and never go anywhere else."

@jqubed How on earth did I miss National Ice Cream Day?? I guess it's not too late to celebrate!

@Alien I've tried those out before, but it was super hard to actually blend the bananas when they're frozen (since they tend to stick to the sides of the blender). It was really tasty though!

@luvche21 That's good to know. I've only made it in a food processor so far.