homemade ice cream: mint chocolate chip

I do believe in my first homemade ice cream post I mentioned that there were two no-churn recipes I wanted to try. Well that was the first and this is the second! The difference is that the first one used heavy cream mixed with confectioners' sugar and this one has heavy cream mixed with sweetened condensed milk.

Maybe one day I'll make two of the same flavors at the same time using the different recipes just to see if there's any real distance in consistency or taste. But separately I thought these both tasted delicious and like ice cream so they both win in my book.

My only complaint with both so far is that each time the texture got a little ice crystal-y in certain parts. They were still good but it could've been creamier all the way through. Neither recipe mentioned stirring the ice cream once it was popped in the freezer, but I have since heard from several people that giving a stir every so often during the initial freezing process will eliminate this problem. I already have more ingredients so I can give this theory a try!

I was excited to use one of my new Wilton gel food colors in this. I bought an obnoxious pack of a million (twelve) colors and I've been waiting to use one of them. So there's all of your ingredients, except for the chocolate, in the first photo. While your cream is whipping, combine all your flavors, colors, and chips to the sweetened condensed milk. Then add milk mixture to cream, blend well, transfer to some containers and freeze! And maybe stir periodically for good measure. :)

See the linky below for a more detailed recipe. Hope your month is starting off well!

homemade ice cream: chocolate swirl

 

I've been an ice cream fiend for as long as I can remember. Summer or winter, it doesn't make a difference. Ice cream is delicious anytime, anywhere. I've been dying to get the ice cream maker attachment for the KitchenAid mixer ever since I found out there was one. And it wasn't just the price tag that has kept me from getting one. You need to be able to dedicate a decent amount of space in your freezer to keep the bowl chilled, and space is one thing I really don't have at the moment. 

One lovely, amazing day, I came across a recipe for homemade ice cream that did not require any sort of ice cream maker! I bookmarked that one and a little while later, found another! The recipes have slightly different ingredients so I want to try both and see what the difference is. I started off with one from The Wannabe Country Girl, whose recipes never disappoint. And surprise, surprise.. neither did this one. 

 

I wanted to start with something fairly simple so I just used the base recipe and added chocolate syrup to make a chocolate swirl ice cream. 

Making it is super simple and it takes almost no time at all. The longest amount of time is waiting for it to set in the freezer. Thankfully, yesterday was such a beautiful day I got to escape the house and by the time I came back, the ice cream was ready and waiting. :)

Just be careful that you don't over mix! You want the cream to just hold its shape. You're not looking for stiff peaks like you do with whipped cream.

For the chocolate swirl, I just swirled some syrup around the sides of the container, poured about an inch or so of cream mixture, swirled a little syrup on top, and then kept alternating those layers. You can mix in anything you want to the basic recipe (cream + confectioner's sugar). Go crazy! I fully intend to get my mixology on and experiment with as many flavors as I can think of. I already have two in mind for next time!

I got quart + a pint of ice cream out of this. Won ton containers are pretty awesome (and free) for things like this. :)

Grab a spoon, dig in, and enjoy!

What's your favorite ice cream flavor? I could always use more to add to my list of things to try!