Ice cream is one of the most complicated comfort foods to make. Many have spent years of their life trying to master techniques to make the perfect ice cream mix. We’d bet there’s a ninja chef somewhere with his own style and technique for making ice cream. Seeing how complex making ice cream sounds, people now resort to store-bought ice cream. Since it’s just a few blocks away and costs a few bucks, why waste all the time and energy making it from scratch?
What if we told you that there was a way to make ice cream at home? A way that doesn’t require you to spend thousands on buying an ice cream machine or leaving your home to get your comfort food. With simple appliances like a blender, a mixing tool, and some containers, you can make fresh, creamy, delicious, and environmentally-friendly ice cream in a few hours. Wanna find out how? Keep scrolling down and check out our recipe for free.
First things first;
Can you really make ice cream in a blender?
The short answer is; yes! The long answer, it’ll take a few hours. Just like cooking, making ice cream in a blender requires you to have a high-powered blender together with a few other appliances and ingredients to make things work! Not to worry though as the subsequent sections would help reveal those mysterious ingredients.
What are the things you need to make ice cream in a blender?
You need two things to create delicious ice cream magic. First, the appliances. Second, the ingredients. Remember that your ingredients are dependent on the flavor of ice cream you’re willing to make.
Ingredients
You don’t need to break the bank to get ingredients for our recipe, with simple ingredients like;
- Heavy cream, whole milk, or any liquid base of your choice,
- Major flavor (e.g cocoa powder, fruit, butter, etcetera),
- Sweetener (could be honey or condensed milk),
- An enhancer (we use vanilla as it’s the most common),
- And any toppings of your choice,
You can make an even better ice cream mix from scratch.
Appliances
To make delicious ice cream from scratch, you need to have some of these appliances around your kitchen somewhere. Although it’s not necessary to have them all, we’d be mentioning the most important ones to have.
- Whisks and forks
A kitchen isn’t complete without a whisk and some forks. Whisks are important in the ice cream-making process and are used to incorporate ingredients into one homogenous mixture. Forks, on the other hand, are used for the controlled blending of the above-mentioned ingredients. Both appliances are important in the production process and would be used in our recipe later on in the blog.
- Mixing bowl
You’re definitely going to need a mixing bowl to incorporate all the ingredients together. A stainless steel bowl should do the trick.
- Spatulas
Spatulas are used for mixing ice cream sauces like chocolate at high temperatures.
- Freezing container
This could be anything from a loaf pan to a big plastic bowl or anything that can survive long hours in the freezer.
- A high-grade blender or food processor
This is the machine that puts the ice cream maker to sleep. The one machine that helps you create smooth, creamy, and delicious ice cream. Depending on where you live, we advise you to get one from a brand you trust as you’d be using it throughout the entire process.
- Ziploc freezer bags
Plastic Ziploc freezer bags have the tendency to freeze your ice cream base much faster than other containers. Its flat surface area gives your ice cream base enough exposure to the coolant in your fridge hence, freezing it in a matter of minutes.
- Spade spoons
Spade spoons are more efficient than other ice cream scoops when scooping up ice cream to be eaten. Its tapered ends make it super easy to scoop every last bit of ice cream from your bowl.
- Blowtorch
The blowtorch is used when caramelization is needed in your ice cream. Say; you want some toasty marshmallows in your bowl to add that campfire feeling, a blowtorch is your go-to tool for making that happen.
NOTE: The blowtorch is an optional tool to have. You can still make good ice cream without it.
Recipe
If you’ve made it this far into our listicle, consider yourself amongst the lucky 10%. So, without further ado, let’s bring you up to speed on our recipe for making the best homemade ice cream. Follow the steps listed below to begin the process. Firstly;
- Prepare your equipment. This includes freezing your mixing bowl and liquid bases in the Ziploc bag to thicken it up a bit.
- Once done with the initial freezing process, pour your major ingredients (liquid base, major flavor, sweetener, and enhancer) into the mixing bowl.
- Gently whisk the mixture for a few seconds to homogenize your ice cream mixture a bit.
- Place the mixture in your blender or food processor and blend on high till a smooth consistency is formed.
- Once the desired consistency is reached, remove the contents of the blender, place them in your freezer-safe container, and freeze for about 6 hours.
- 5 hours into the freezing process, prepare your toppings and add them to the mixture before putting them back in the freezer for an additional 2 hours.
- Finally, after about 7 hours of freezing, your ice cream is ready to serve! Take some scoops with your spade spoon, add some marshmallows to spice things up, and enjoy your homemade comfort food.
See? Home-made ice cream is nowhere near learning rocket science at all! However, there are some mistakes you should never make when making ice cream with your blender. Not to worry though as we’d let you in on them before wrapping things up.
3 Mistakes to avoid when making ice cream with your blender
- Over-blending your ice cream
We hate to break it to you but over-blended ice cream doesn’t taste good. To avoid this, make sure your blender is capable of starting the blending process slowly before rapidly increasing the speed.
- Not freezing your ice cream base before blending
This is a common mistake a lot of people do when making ice cream. You should never forget this important step if you want good ice cream.
- Not whisking your mixture before placing in the blender
Placing all the big lumpy clumps of your mixture directly in your blender could clog up the blades’ movement. Making a sparsely homogenized mixture would help ease the pressure on your blender’s blades which in turn prolongs the lifespan.
Conclusion
Note: You can also use a hand-crank or electric ice cream maker for this process. But using a blender gives you the freedom of making ice cream in less time and with no additional equipment.
That’s it! All you need to make a smooth, earthy, and delicious homemade ice cream with nothing but a blender and a few ingredients. We’re always here to answer your questions so feel free to reach us, so we can help you out with your ice cream issues.