Can an ice cream maker that was only £20, reduced to £15, then finally reduced to £10 actually work?! That’s what we’re here today to find out folks! And in true Barry style, I’m testing it out with three ice cream/sorbet recipes, two are what you’d probably call normal ones, and one that’s a little bit quirky!
Now I know you can make ice cream just using a Ziploc bag, but for something that does the hard work for you, this is an absolute bargain! It’s not the biggest ice cream machine out there at just half a litre, but for the perfect little tub of homemade ice cream
Even though it’s a 500ml bowl, it’s a bit weird as the first recipe only gets you to use 100ml of liquid. But if you think about it churning around and expanding as it freezes, I guess that makes sense?! Just the perfect size for a personal pot of ice cream!
So here are the recipes for the three different ice creams I made, make sure to watch the video to check out Mrs B’s reaction to the last one!
Mint Choc Chip Ice Cream Recipe
Measure out the milk and cream then mix in the icing sugar (it’s only a tiny amount, you’d basically sneeze it out!).
Next stir in the peppermint extract, and you don’t need to taste the extract first like I do, but make sure just to add it in small amounts so it’s not too strong! Then mix in your grated chocolate.
Now I don’t know about you but I’ve never seen mint choc chip ice cream that isn’t green before! So I added a squeeze of green food colouring to make sure it looked right.
I popped mine into the fridge to help it when I started churning it, just to quickly cool it down.
Pour the whole mixture into the fast freezing bowl that you’ve taken out of the freezer and pop it into the ice cream maker. Let the paddle run until the mixture reaches a thick ice cream consistency. You can enjoy straight away or put the ice cream into the freezer in the fast freezing bowl until you’re ready for it!
Pineapple Sorbet Recipe
I love a vessel where you eat the food out of the thing it’s come from, like a bread bowl, so you don’t need a plate or a bowl. So I decided to serve my pineapple sorbet in a pineapple!
So the first step is to slice the pineapple straight down the middle and scoop out the insides. This is handy as we need the flesh of about half a pineapple for the next step! Whizz it up in the blender, then add in the sugar (even though it’s probably sweet enough!), water and a squeeze of lemon juice.
Same as with the mint choc chip ice cream, I popped it into the freezer to cool down for a few minutes so it was ready to churn!
Next pour the mixture into the fast freezing bowl, into the ice cream maker, and let it churn up until you’re happy with the consistency. Scoop it out into your pineapple vessel and leave it in the freezer until you’re ready to serve!
Sweetcorn Ice Cream Recipe
This one is a little bizarre, I have to admit, but would you expect anything less from me?! It uses a custard base mix plus something else a little familiar: sweetcorn – someone’s got to try it!
First whizz up the sweetcorn in a blender. Heat in a medium saucepan with the milk stirring occasionally, but don’t let it boil. Remove from the heat to let it cool then let it steep to draw the flavours out for 10 minutes.
While it’s steeping, whisk together the egg yolks and sugar in a bowl until pale and fluffy. Then pour in the double cream and a pinch of salt. Mix this all together to start to form the custard.
After 10 minutes, sieve the milky sweetcorn mixture so the sweetcorn pulp is strained out. I decided to mix a little of it, about a third, back in for some sweetcorn texture!
Now put the sweetcorn flavoured milk into the pan over a steady heat and pour the custard mixture in slowly, whisking as you go.
As before, let the ice cream mixture cool before whacking it into your fast freeze bowl and setting it off on the ice cream machine. Then once you’ve got it looking like real ice cream, serve and enjoy!
Mrs B wasn’t a fan (at all!), but I didn’t think it was too bad! But remember kids, sweetcorn ice cream is for life and not just this video. Unless you’re Mrs B, in that case, sweetcorn ice cream is never the answer!