by Libbette

Triple chocolate cookies and strawberry ice cream sandwiches

I never really considered making my own ice cream until I read a recipe for triple chocolate cookies and strawberry ice cream sandwiches in Bon Appetit magazine. The aforementioned ice cream was homemade, which appealed to me as I rarely like store bought strawberry ice cream, and I had some strawberries in the freezer. So I went on Amazon and found a small ice-cream maker for $20, that didn’t require pre-freezing or rock salt (as I’m no good at that ‘forethought’ stuff). The plan was to make some ice cream, with the understanding that my husband would make the accompanying triple-choc cookies.

Small ice-cream maker

Let me say from the start that I suck at following recipes. I consider myself to be a very good cook, but following directions is not my thing. I’d rather make it up as I go along. As such, I rarely bake, and almost never make desserts, because most desserts require direction. So, despite being very comfortable in the kitchen, I was almost nervous about making the ice cream. I mixed some egg yolks and sugar, then added milk and mushed strawberries. This was then to be cooked over a low heat, constantly stirred, so as not to make sweet, strawberry flavoured scrambled eggs (a mistake I made once when making custard when young. It was bad). It thickened a bit, and the strawberries started to smell “cooked” (causing me to think that I should have gone off the recipe after all and mixed them in after heating the eggs). The mixture was then thrown into the maker, which was put in the freezer and switched on. Easy peasy.

Strawberry Ice Cream

The result was decent strawberry ice cream. The choc cookies the hubby made had over a pound of chocolate in them and as such were rather tooth-hurtingly rich and sweet, but the whole thing was pretty good. Success. We gave the remaining cookies to the parking attendants in my building, so as not to be tempted by them (the cookies, not the guys).

My only regret is that mine is not pink

The second ice cream I made was a lemon mascarpone gelato from The London River Café Cookbook. The recipe served 10 and had 20 eggs, so I had to do some dividing of ingredients (good thing I’m a maths teacher) to ensure the mix fit in my teeny machine – plus who has 20 eggs in their fridge? I fussed with it a little too, adding less sugar, more lemon juice, some lemon zest and slightly less mascarpone (because I had less than the full package, after mixing some with orange zest and serving with caramelized figs). This required a lot of stirring, first on the heat and then off. I made the husband do some of the stirring whilst the mix was on the heat, as it thickened nicely, and then put it into the Kitchenaid to mix while cooling (Note: Kitchenaids are a godsend. My only regret is that mine is not pink). The mix tasted pretty good even before being frozen. The gelato that came out was yummy, judging from the small amount I tasted as I transferred the mix from the machine to a container for storage. The next day I had some “non-foodie” friends over, who nearly spat out their wine when I told them what I had made (after I had fed them lasagne with home-made noodles). I served small amounts of the gelato in cute espresso cups. The richness of the mascarpone and the intensity of the lemon zest meant that a small taste was satisfying enough. I started to tell my friends that I thought the slight oiliness of the mascarpone was nicely balanced by the acidic tang of the lemon, but I stopped when I saw their slightly incredulous, slightly amused faces (so I’ll tell you instead).

Lemon-Mascarpone Ice Cream

I’m not sure what kind of ice cream I’ll make next. My husband found a recipe for ginger and coconut cream ice cream, which sounds pretty damn good to me. Though I actually still have some of the lemon mascarpone gelato in the freezer, some of which I threw into a strawberry and banana smoothie with great success. Try to track down the cute $20 icecream maker on Amazon – it’s worth it, even just so you can say you did it.

Next time I’ll regale you with tales of making my own pasta.

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