So I tried another batch of ice cream but I did a couple of things different.
I cut the amount of vanilla powder in half. I liked that better.
I also bought some Alullose (man, that stuff is expensive) and tried it. Judging from a recipe I found and the amount of ice cream I was making I used 1/8 cup. This is the first time in 416 days that I’ve had anything sweet. It wasn’t terribly sweet and it didn’t seem any sweeter than just using plain cream. It also didn’t seem to have any adverse effects on me.
The ice cream was very good and it did seem to be smoother but it still froze rock hard. Maybe not quite as hard as without it but still not scoop-able. It’s really best to just eat it while it’s in the soft serve stage.
It would make a really good popsicles.
Help with making ice cream - suggestions wanted
Sorry this is so late, but life has added extra interruptions to my reading time.
I don’t know which ice cream maker you use, but this is the one I have.
The second picture from the left sort of shows what I’m about to describe. There’s a stirring/scraping/beater kind of thing, red in the picture and reality, that hangs down from the top and is held by the clear plastic cover. The top of that thingy hangs down into the freezing bowl, and instead of timing how long it runs (which depends on how long the bowl of mixture has been in the freezer), I run it until the mix starts to smear on the stirring/scraping thing which also smears on the inside rim of the clear plastic cover. The amount of time that takes depends on how long the ice cream mix has sat in the freezer after mixing in all the ingredients.
I usually put the mixture in my big freezer for two hours before using this, and have gone with times from 1-1/2 to nearly 3 hours. Longer times tend to let ice crystals form in the mix that stay through using the Cuisinart and make the ice cream strangely crunchy. Somewhere around 2 hours plus or minus 15 minutes seems best. This is sitting in the stainless mixing bowl off of my mixer.
Hope that’s useful!
This is the one I use. I’m very pleased with it so far.
https://a.co/d/09U7UGuZ
I’ve thought about the ones with a built in freezer before.
I’m curious about cleaning up and living with it. You go from refrigerator temperature ingredients directly to letting it freeze? How long does that take? That sort of question.
Cleaning is super simple. It has just a metal bucket and the rotating stirrer and the lid to clean. I’m not sure what you mean by “living with it”.
You simply mix the cream, eggs and what ever other ingredients you are using and put the container in the machine. Attach the stirrer to the lid and the motor then attach that to the top of the machine and turn it on. In about 45 minutes or so it’s done. The machine will stop and beep. The ice cream is the consistency of a thick soft serve. It’s great at that consistency but it’s more than I can eat in one sitting so I’ll put the rest in the freezer where it gets hard as a rock.
So I got an idea. Since it’s too hard to scoop once it’s been in the freezer I decided to buy some popsicle molds (just came in today) and I’ll make popsicles out of my homemade ice cream. Has hard as they freeze they will perfect as popsicles.
Despite my awkward way of putting it, your summary is what I meant.
The way I’m doing it takes around the same amount of time, it’s just spread out over several hours. Mixing all the ingredients in the mixer takes about 15 or 20 minutes, then it’s into the big freezer to sit for two hours, into the Cuisinart for another 15 minutes, transfer it to the big container we serve it from, and then back into the big freezer. Like yesterday, I started at about 10AM, finished by about and 12:30 and didn’t actually serve the ice cream until 8PM.
Cleaning everything up is a mix of dishwasher time and hand cleaning. The stainless mixer bowl is too big for the dishwasher and the Cuisinart’s mixing container can’t go in there. It took me several tries to figure out how to clean that and then dry it without having whatever I would dry it with freeze to the container’s sides. It’s just a minute or two, but putting stuff in the dishwasher and taking it out a couple of hours later is sure easier.
Hi, Geoffrey,
Remember this?
My Cuisinart broke apart on me today, while making a batch of ice cream, so I either buy some parts to fix it or look at one of those like you’re using.
Since the one I have says 1-1/2 quart, and I notice the Kumio you linked to is 1.2 QT, I might need to get their 2qt version. At $200 vs. 145 for the 1.2 qt and $50 for another Cuisinart, can I ask a couple of questions?
Are you still happy with it, and is it still working with no troubles? I can send a recipe I use, but it’s a pint of HWC, a cup of Half&Half, for a pint and a half, then two eggs and some flavoring stuff. It’s probably under a quart.
Thanks for the time and any advice or input you’ve got.
While eggs seem like a good idea, just realize that you are not going to get the benefit of about 50% of the protein from raw eggs - our digestive systems just don’t handle raw egg protein efficiently.
I was high on allulose until I found out that it glycates just as much as other sugars if not more. So, while it is preferable to other sugars, I cannot recommend its wholesale usage in the diet because I feel that will promote oxidation of the apoB protein in LDL, which I believe is a primary cause of heart disease. Instead, I would try liquid stevia or monk fruit extract. Stevia is probably going to be the cheapest option - even cheaper than allulose. Currently, my favored cocoa powder is the Target store Good and Gather brand, as independent testing has shown it to have superior phytosterol levels with minimal heavy metals.
I haven’t ever made this ice cream, but other flavors might include coconut, choc chip, and vanilla-orange… I better stop now… I’m making myself hungry…
Sorry, I haven’t had time to make much ice cream. My daughter has PANS (pediatric acute-onset neuropsychiatric syndrome), which is where a disease (in her case, lyme disease and bartonella, though strep is also not out of the question) causes psychiatric symptoms. In short, she tried to kill herself by taking an overdose of medication. Went into the hospital for 3 weeks, is out but doing intensive therapy. She’s cut herself multiple times and has suicidal ideations daily.
Between that and doing drywall and painting of my “office” in the basement, I haven’t had time to make ice cream. The chocolate I made I did like, using all allulose.
Another issue with PANS is that it causes disordered eating. That is, my daughter is never hungry. We let her eat whatever she wants to eat because she doesn’t eat. So, it feels wrong to give something to her with allulose, which has the ability to cause one to be less hungry.
Holy **** Bob, that is a heck of a thing. I’m sorry, and good luck to you and your family.
My goodness, keeping your daughter and family in my thoughts.
I can’t imagine.