Who doesn’t scream for ice cream? Unfortunately, your ice cream cravings can go unsatisfied when you aren’t in the mood to go to the store in the middle of the night. Plus, store-bought ice cream can get quite expensive. It’s also full of preservatives and unknown ingredients, so you might be hesitating before fulfilling your ice cream passion.
If these are the ice cream problems that plague you, how about homemade ice cream as rich and creamy as any bought from a famous store? In fact, homemade ice cream is much healthier and flavorful than what you get after standing in the queue for long. You can control the ingredients that go inside, making sure that you get as flavorful and ‘healthy’ a result as possible. Even if you have to use refined sugar, homemade ice cream can easily have real fruit in it as well as be free from fillers and preservatives. Also visit Hammersmith Ice Cream shop for best experience.
Blending up a homemade ice cream concoction is a delightful experiment with flavors and textures. While your blender can churn out creamy and luscious ice cream, there are places where the essence of authentic ice cream making comes alive with original flavors and sublime textures. For instance, while venturing into creative homemade ice cream ideas, drawing inspiration from the mastery of flavors at ice cream provo could elevate your icy creations. The expertise and unique touch in their ice cream exhibit a perfect blend of tradition and innovation, ensuring that every scoop is a celebration of extraordinary taste and quality.
Problems In Making Homemade Ice Cream
When anyone suggests making ice cream at home, you might suppress a groan at the thought of requiring an ice cream maker. Not only can these machines be expensive, but you might not want to lug the whole thing out every time the ice cream craving strikes.
Fortunately, you may not even require a proper ice cream maker for this purpose either. It’s absolutely possible to make your homemade ice cream using your trusty old blender. Most of us already have blenders sitting on out countertops or within easy reach at the front of our kitchen cabinets. With a powerful enough model, you can have ice-cream making as a fun activity for the whole family.
Don’t believe it? Let us tell you how to make ice cream with the help of a blender and you wouldn’t want to ever buy a carton from the store again:
Using a Blender for Homemade Ice Cream
This recipe uses a few basic ingredients. Once you are in practice, you can be creative and add exciting flavors to the recipe. If you like, you can also eventually tweak the ingredients back and forth to produce different versions. However, this is the one that seems to hold up well so far:
Ingredients
- ½ cup Milk
- ½ cup Heavy Cream
- ½ cup Non-fat milk powder
- ½ cup Cocoa powder (for chocolate ice cream)
- 2/3 cup Sugar
- 1 tsp. Vanilla
- 18 ounces or 500 g Ice cubes
Method
Blend all the above ingredients in a blender at a low speed until all the ice cubes are crushed. We mentioned having a powerful blender above, so make sure you have one that can handle ice cubes as well as other hard ingredients.
Next, increase the speed of the blender and blend the mixture until it is thick and creamy. Freeze for an hour or serve immediately.
Ingredient Tips
If you want perfect homemade ice cream every single time, you might want to follow certain tips. These guidelines will help you get the best-tasting ice cream and also the one with the best texture. If you’re having trouble with getting a decent result, these tips could make all the difference:
- Do not freeze homemade blender ice cream in the freezer for more than an hour. This could make it too hard, which could then lead to breakage and an ugly appearance. For better taste and texture, serve it immediately. This might mean it’s softer than the store version, more like the soft-serve ice cream we get from machines. However, the exact time for setting your ice cream might vary according to the power of your freezer
- Milk and heavy cream are essential components of this recipe and add thickness to the ice-cream; therefore, they both must not be missed. Of course, you can vary the kind of milk you use and see if full-fat milk powder will work as well as the no-fat kind. Some people might like to try soy or almond milk here, but such substitutions will require a different recipe.
- It’s best to blend all your ingredients in the blender at a low speed. This will help to crush the ice without it jamming the machine. You want to blend until the ice is in small chunks about the size of a pea. At this point, you can rev up the blender to a higher speed and get the whole concoction looking like a very thick milkshake. There should be no chunks of ice in the mixture by the time you stop. Keep checking with a fork to see that they’re all dissolved.
- You can alternate sugar, chocolate, and vanilla with your favorite flavors and fruits. Try sliced strawberries, Nutella, bananas, and several different types of berries for more adventurous flavors.
- Do not skip ice cubes as they are used to bind the mixture together and help freeze it. Keep in mind that you’d need ice cubes for this recipe, so fill up your trays and pop them in the freezer at least the night before making the ice cream.
- Despite there the fact that ice is used, your ice cream wouldn’t be rough because of the non-fat milk powder, so consider it to be a secret ingredient
- Once the ice cream seems done in the blender, you should freeze it in a container that’s freezer-safe. Keep in mind that the container should have a large surface area. This will ensure that the whole mixture gets plenty of cool air. Plastic containers are the best options here, but you want to make sure they’re made of food-safe materials.
Making Changes
While the recipe above is a fairly basic one, you can always make it more exciting by changing some ratios and adding certain ingredients. Some of the safer tweaks are discussed below:
Double Richness
If you don’t like the ice-cube texture in homemade ice creams, you can give it a double richness and creaminess by making milk cubes. Simply freeze milk in ice-cube trays a night before you plan to make blended ice cream and use them as an alternative to water ice-cubes. This will give you the same basic consistency of ice cream, but it will be creamier.
Adding Fresh Fruits
If you are planning to make a fresh and fruity ice cream for your little ones (or yourself), make sure you freeze the fresh fruits overnight and then blend them with the other ingredients. Using frozen fruits will give you a creamy, rich texture. Remember, using frozen fresh fruit could also mean you don’t need to use as much sugar. Be sure to test the mixture before adding sugar so that fruity ice cream isn’t too sweet.
Unique Combinations
The basic rule of this homemade ice cream recipe is that you add cocoa powder for a chocolate flavor. You can add frozen strawberries for a strawberry flavor, and some vanilla essence for a vanilla flavor. The three main ice cream flavors are all very well, but you can also try out some unique combinations and make the experience even more fun.
- Dark chocolate and peanut butter
Many people love the combination of chocolate and peanut butter. You can now bring this flavor to your homemade ice cream. Use yogurt, bananas, dark chocolate powder, and peanut butter to make this double-cream dark chocolate richness and serve with wafers.
- Coconut Combo
Coconut flavors can be soothing and decadent at the same time, so you might want to try this recipe for your next dinner party. Use coconut powder and canned coconut milk to bring this refreshing cool flavor to your dinner table. Serve with hot chocolate syrup.
- Cherry Go Merry
Use frozen cherries and sugar along with vanilla extract to make a fruity, tangy ice cream at home. If you don’t like cherries, replace them with frozen mangoes and serve with mango chunks and walnuts. This recipe is a great way to use seasonal fruit. Again, keep in mind that using the fruit will probably require less sugar. You might want to do away with this ingredient altogether unless absolutely required.
- Cookies and Cream
Everyone loves a cookies-and-cream flavor, and there’s no reason why you can’t make it right at home. After following the basic recipe with chocolate and vanilla, simply add some crushed Oreo cookies just after you have thoroughly blended the ice cream. Freeze and serve after an hour with chocolate syrup and chocolate chips.
- Strawberry and Cream
Ever wondered what’s in that strawberry and cream ice cream bucket? Yes, lots of preservatives. Try making this flavor at home with our simple recipe and replace milk with coconut milk and chocolate with frozen strawberries. You probably wouldn’t regret a double scoop of this concoction! If you don’t like the flavor of coconut, however slight, you can try keeping in the regular milk instead.
- Salted Caramel
This mouth-watering flavor is a healthy and nutritious combination of sea salt, maple syrup, dates, and bananas. Serve it with nuts and chocolate syrup. This particular recipe is perfect for both children and adults. Since you’re adding dates, bananas, and syrup, the sugar content is already quite high. We really don’t’ recommend adding any kind of sugar to the mix.
Conclusion
The variation in ice cream flavors is a never-ending list. However, we’ve covered some of the easiest and successful ways to make ice cream at home using a blender in this article. With just a few ingredients, you can have all the flavors that you crave right in the comfort of your own home!
The key step is to know how to keep the consistency and richness the same every time. In order to achieve perfection, you might want to try out the basic recipe a few times, with only a few conventional ingredients thrown in. Once you’ve mastered the art of the basic ice cream, you may then go wild with some unique and imaginative flavors. Next time your hunger pangs scream for ice cream, don’t tell them to be quiet. Simply power up the blender and you can have your chilled, delicious and creamy ice cream that very day!
What’s even better is that ice cream and smoothies aren’t the only items you can make with a blender. You can read up on some great blender recipes and use this handy gadget in many versatile ways.