During my sugar strike i've craved ice cream a few times and the last nail in the coffin was it being a beautiful sunny spring day when i was walking in the city centre wearing too much clothes and passing this great Italin ice cream shop. I decided i was going to make ice cream of my own. I've never done it before, mainly since i haven't had an ice cream maker, but i decided i will do just fine without. Just need a little patience. You can obviously make this ice cream also with an ice cream maker. I would suggest that you don't start the project at 9 pm (like i did) if you want to go to sleep early. I got to sleep at about 2 am when the ice cream had frozen enough so that it no longer needed stirring. But i'm a strange person and like to stay up late, so i made this decision willingly.

I made 3 kinds of ice creams. The base of them all is the same so you can make any one of them or all 3 or use your imagination to create flavours of your own. I made the safe options, strawberry and chocolate, but also tried something completely different since i wanted to see how my favourite nuts, cashew nuts, would suit ice cream.

 

Ice cream:

Base of all ice creams:

- 3 egg yolks

- 2,5 dl cooking cream

- 2,5 dl heavy (whipping) cream

- 2 tbsp honey

- 1 tsp vanilla extract

Put all the ingredients in a saucepan and on low heat bring the mixture to almost a boil. Just almost, don't actually let it boil. Now divide the mixture in three parts to make the different ice creams. Pour 1/3 of the mixture to each of 2 different containers. Leave the last 1/3 in the saucepan.

 

Strawberry ice cream:

- 1/2 dl strawberries

Mix the crushed strawberries in the ice cream base in one of the containers. Put in the fridge to cool.

 

Rum and cashew ice cream:

- 1/2 tsp butter

- 1 tsp rum flavour

- 2 tbsp chopped cashew nuts

Put the butter to melt in the liquid in the second container while the liquid is still hot. Mix in also the rum flavour. Put in the fridge to cool. Mix in the cashews once the liquid is gets a little thicker.

 

Chocolate ice cream:

- 2 tbsp dark cocoa powder.

Mix the cocoa well with the liquid left in the saucepan. Bring to almost a boil once more, pour the liquid in a separate container and put to the fridge to cool.

 

Now that all of the ice creams are in the fridge, let them cool there for atleast 2 hours until they are completely chilled. Mix now and then while doing this. I mixed about once every 15 mins. The mixtures will get a little thicker while cooling.

Once the ice creams are chilled move them in to the freezer. Keep mixing each ice cream well every 15 mins or so atleast 3 hours or until you can't mix anymore. The time each ice cream takes can vary. Atleast for me the rum ice cream took longer than the others. The purpose of the mixing is to keep the water in the ice cream from growing into large ice crystals. Otherwise it will freeze completely solid and taste like the once melted and re-frozen ice creams you sometimes accidently pick up from the store... When you can't mix the ice cream anymore let it freeze in peace.

 

When serving the ice creams move them into the fridge to soften for about 10 mins before trying to scoop anything from the containers. These ice creams aren't whipped full of air like some of the cheap ice creams in the stores and therefore will be more solid and hard to cut when completely frozen. Enjoy your ice cream.

Here's mine:

 

Kotitekoinen jäätelö ilman jäätelökonetta - Mansikkajäätelö - Suklaajäätelö - Rommijäätelö