We invited my father-in-law, Max, over for dinner tonight. He suggested that we make ice cream, and you can be sure that we were all for it. Max has an old barrel-style ice cream maker. The ice cream ingredients go into a metal canister with a paddle, which is then put into a wooden barrel. Between the canister and the barrel, ice and rock salt are mixed to form a very cold, slushy soup that freezes the ice cream. A top with a crank is placed on the ice cream canister and the churning begins. It takes about 20 minutes of turning the crank, something the whole family can take turns at.Max's recipe doesn't call for cooking a custard beforehand. Lover of custards that I am, I would be quite happy to make a custard ahead of time, but this is definitely a quicker method. We had little packages of Lindt 70% dark chocolate, which we smashed into little pieces. The cherries were from a jar of sour cherries in juice. We cut the cherries up into little pieces, finding and removing a few pits in the process. We drained the cherries really well and then dried them fully with a paper towel. You don't want to add extra liquid to the ice cream mixture. After the ice cream was finished, we transferred it into plastic containers and stuck them in a snowbank on the deck.
The vanilla can be done a couple of ways. If you have vanilla beans, scrape the inside of half a bean and add the little bits into the cream. Save the vanilla bean for the next time you make chai tea (Dec. '07) or baked custard (April '08). If you are making an ice cream from a cooked custard, add the whole bean and remove it after the custard is finished cooking. If you don't have vanilla beans on hand, use 1 or 2 teaspoons of pure vanilla extract.
After a dinner of roast chicken with an apple stuffing, wild rice with oranges & pecans, and frozen Harrow sweet corn, we felt like royalty, enjoying our homemade ice cream. It was a great activity for everyone to get involved in and we all went to bed last night, dreaming of the flavours we would like to make next time.
Dark Chocolate-Sour Cherry Ice Cream
3 extra-large eggs
3 c. whipping cream
1 1/2 c. milk
1 1/4 c. granulated sugar
1/2 vanilla bean, split & scraped
1/2 c. sour cherries, pitted
1/2 c. dark chocolate, cut into small chunks
1. Beat eggs and sugar together in large bowl. Add cream and milk. Split the vanilla bean in half, and using the back of a small knife, scrape the tiny vanilla seeds into the cream mixture.
2. Pour the cream mixture into the ice cream maker. Freeze according to the manufacturer's instructions. When the ice cream is almost finished, add the cherries and the chocolate. Mix a little bit longer and move ice cream to another container. Eat immediately or store in the freezer.
