New Ice Cream Recipe with Variations

Finding myself with copious amounts of milk and eggs again, I decided to have some fun making ice cream.

Previously, I'd made French Vanilla Ice Cream but this time, I wanted to venture out and try something a little different.  I asked my family what were their favourite flavours and resolved to have a go at each of them.

I found a recipe for Chocolate Ice Cream online and gave it a go.  I didn't have enough chocolate so I added two heaped dessertspoons of hot chocolate powder.  I also noticed that it used half the eggs compared to my previous recipe and still turned out lovely and tasty.

Miss 12 asked for a mint choc chip ice cream.  I didn't have mint essence so I went outside and picked a large bunch of mint from my garden.  I washed the mint and stripped the leaves from the stems.  Instead of scalding the milk, I heated it slowly with the mint.  Strained, I used the milk and followed the recipe like normal.

It tasted kind of minty with a distinct "herbal" flavour.  It wasn't unpleasant and Miss 12 has been eating it, it's just not quite the same as the bought ones.

I wanted a rum flavoured ice cream.  I like Rum and Raisin, although my last purchase was rather underwhelming.  I didn't have any raisins, but couldn't see why rum wouldn't work on it's own.
In my first batch, I added rum at the end.  It was delightful.  Since then though, I've been adding the rum with the milk before heating - it has the flavour but not the alcohol content.

I also made a coffee ice cream.  For this variation, I put 4 heaped dessertspoons of coffee in my plunger and filled it with hot milk.  It made the slow addition of hot milk to eggs much easier as I simply poured from the plunger.

It got stronger after it was frozen.  It's all mine.  My Preccciousssss.

Berry Ice Cream for my daughter-in-law was made by simmering frozen blackberries until soft and mushy, then forcing them through a sieve.  I froze this separately from the ice cream and then mixed them together later making a ripple effect.

Hubby and Dad tried to ban me from giving it to her.  They decided they really needed to eat it all.

Hokey Pokey Ice Cream for my Dad was fairly simple.  I found a recipe for Hokey Pokey (also known as Honeycomb by the Aussies) which I'd never tried making before.  Made the Hokey Pokey, broke it up into chunks and mixed it through French Vanilla.

My basic recipe has changed a little from the rather rich Creme Anglaise recipe.  My process has also changed a bit too.

Basic Ice Cream recipe

9 egg yolks
1 1/2 C sugar
1.5 litres milk

Scald the milk in a saucepan.
Beat the yolks and sugar together until pale.  Heat gently in a double boiler, adding milk very slowly and whisking constantly.  When thick enough to coat the back of a spoon, take it off the heat and allow to cool.

Pour into a shallow metal tray and freeflow in the freezer overnight. 
In the morning, cut into chunks and run through food processor until soft-serve ice cream consistency.  This may take several batches.
Pour into container, label and freeze.