Monday, July 5, 2010

some scenes from our fourth

{sliced homegrown cucumbers}
{digging in to roasted corn}
{Dieter goofing around}
{flowers for the table}
{desert of homemade ice cream and favorite chocolate chip cookies}

Ken took the boys to the fireworks at night. My big revelation and fun project for the day was making homemade ice cream with no ice cream freezer. It was so fun! The boys helped and were involved along the way. I followed the recipe for vanilla ice cream in Apples for Jam. You make a simple custard, stir in cream, allow to cool, then cover the mixture and place in the freezer. Every so often you pull it out and give it an energetic whisking and put it back in. I'm the type of person who loves to do things like soak beans and hang out laundry, so you can imagine that pulling ice cream out of the freezer every 30 minutes is super exciting for me. It was fun to see it develop from a liquid into ice cream. And the taste? I thought it was great. Yes, it's a tad more icy than you would get with an ice cream freezer, but I loved doing it this way and I really love not owning extra gadgetry or having to buy, store, clean and maintain another electric appliance. I'm amazed that any mention of making ice cream by hand has almost completely disappeared from any cookbook you can buy. Apples for Jam is the only one I've seen that mentions this. It was fun and highly recommended!

13 comments:

saraelise said...

Apples for Jam is a favorite cookbook of mine, as well. I was just looking at that recipe last week. Now, we are definitely going to try it! Your Fourth celebration sounds like it was lovely and yummy.:)

Denise C. said...

I love the recipe for the ice cream! I feel the same way, ice cream makers are not cheap, you have to buy, clean, store it etc. Too much. I will have to check out Apples for Jam! :)

Loving the food photos! :)

Dawn said...

Looks like a lovely celebration and Apples and Jam has been on my want list for quite some time, good to know so many love it too! :)

Kate said...

Ooh! I never thought about looking in Apples for Jam for an ice cream recipe. I used the one from Martha Stewart (lovely, but uses 8 egg yolks. Eek!) I shall have to try the one from Apples for Jam. The recipe in there for banana bread is our current go to recipe, if you haven't tried it. It's wonderful!

Your Fourth looks like it was a lovely day.

melissa s. said...

ooh I haven't tried that one yet. I love all the recipes in AfJ so will add this to my list, thanks!

sarah said...

i have not heard of that cookbook. i will have to check it out.
i am so excited to try making ice cream. the more i can make hamemade the better especially desserts!! last summer i was so tempted to buy one of those balls that you roll around to make ice cream but, i just never got around to it. this i already have the supplies for. thank you.

nicole said...

i love "apples for jam" i will add this ice cream recipe to my summer try-to-do list!

Andrea said...

Yea! Thanks for the tip. I've been wanting to make homemade ice cream (we get raw milk with lots of cream on top) but I haven't wanted to buy a freezer. I have the recipe my grandparents always used when I was a kid...we'd pick raspberries on my birthday, then everyone would take turns cranking the hand-crank ice cream freezer and sprinkle the berries on top of the vanilla ice cream.1

Kelley-Lou-Who said...

That ice cream & cookie looks soo yummy! What cookie recipe do you use?

Mary Beth said...

Kellly-Lou--you are going to love this recipe! I've posted it before. It works great. Just don't overmix it. By the way, the dough is a bit crumbly but I just press it together in the cookie scoop and re-shape a bit if the falls apart when I un-scoop it. It's not a big deal but I mention it because one reader had a bit of trouble. Here's the link:

http://saltandchocolate.blogspot.com/2008/04/my-favorite-chocolate-chip-cookie.html

Sarah said...

I just saw another blog post about making ice cream without an ice cream maker. I thought it looked delicious - as does yours! - and I can't wait to try it.

http://www.ourbestbites.com/2010/07/quick-easy-creamy-fruit-freeze.html

Mary Beth said...

Sarah--thank you so much for that link! The recipe looks so delicious and I have already bookmarked 2 other recipes. Great site. Plus, it is awesome to hear from you!

Nancy said...

I'm so excited to learn this tip. I've wanted to read Apples for Jam forever, but our library 'only' has Falling Cloudberries...now I'll have to take the plunge and buy both.

We are headed out to a summer cottage and I've been pondering how to make ice cream there...I will wonder no longer!

And (as if I haven't said enough) I posted about using the microwave for making custard...which will have you making ice cream more than once a week (eek!).