Ads 468x60px

Pages

Monday, July 13, 2009

Here's a fun one - Coffee Can Ice Cream!!

Erik and I made coffee can ice cream the other night. It was easy, surprisingly fast, tasty, and a great way to kill time when you are locked indoors from the summer heat!!



Here's what you need (per person):



1 pint size jar with seal and metal twist on lid.

1 3 lb. coffee can, again with twist on lid. OR, get creative - we used a large glass pickle jar that had a metal twist on lid, and a large plastic container that once had jalapenos in it (also had a twist on lid).

**We liked the idea of the twist on lids for everything because it was that much less likely that anything was going to leak out.

Rock salt (found with the other salts at the grocery store)

Lots of ice (our ice maker in the freezer was full, and we used all of it)

Recipe for homemade ice cream (my version is below, but it is basic)

Directions:

Fill your pint jars with your cream mixture (recipe below, or use your own) and tightly fasten the lids.

Fill your large jar with 1 or 2 cups of ice then sprinkle rock salt over that. My ratio was 1/2 cup of salt per 2 cups of ice. That might be too much, but too much is better than not enough! Set your smaller ice cream jar in the center of the large jar on top of the ice, then add another 1 or 2 cups of ice around that to hold it in place in the center. Again, sprinkle with another 1/2 cup or so of salt. Do as many layers as you need to until your large jar is completely full of ice, and your small jar is completely covered. Tighten the lid on your large jar.

**If you've used a lid that just snaps on, rather than twists on, you may want to take extra precautions to keep the lid from popping off and spilling salty water all over the place. Tape it up, or whatever else you can think of...

Now go sit on the ground somewhere and start rolling the jar around. Fast agitation is best. It isn't necessary to have someone else to roll your jar or can back and forth. Erik and I each did our own. This would be fun for kids however to roll their jars around to each other.

We rolled our jars for a total of 30 minutes, and got about 1-inch solid around the ice cream jars. The rest was slushy but thick like a milkshake. So we put the jars in the freezer for another 30 minutes, and they froze up beautifully! Next time, I might allow an hour in the freezer, but that's just because I like hard ice cream. Erik likes soft serve, so he was happy with how his turned out. Either way, I wouldn't freeze for any more than 1 hour. Without the additives that are in your store bought ice cream, this version will probably freeze up solid as a rock if you left it in the freezer for too long.

This is the recipe I used (again, this is per jar):
* 1 3/4 cups of heavy cream or half and half (depends on how thick and creamy you want it, and how calorie-conscious you are)
* 1 egg, beaten
* 1/2 cup sugar
* 1 teaspoon vanilla

I put my egg in the blender so it was good and beaten, then added everything else. I mixed it up good in the blender, then poured it into my jar.

OPTIONS -

You can use milk instead of the cream or half and half. It won't be as creamy, but it will be lower in fat and calories.

The egg is optional. Erik didn't exactly like that he was eating raw egg in his ice cream, but I wasn't going to go through the extra trouble to cook the cream first. I don't know what the difference will be without the egg, but the recipe said optional.

I don't like the taste of vanilla extract, and it gave our ice cream a bit of that funny flavor. I will be using vanilla bean pods next time. I saw them at Costco recently. You just boil the pods to soften them up, then split them open and scrape out the brown vanilla bean mush in the center.

Any other additives or flavorings would go in at your preference. You could add in chocolate syrup or other sunday syrups, fresh berries, substitute vanilla extract for coconut or other flavor, candy bar pieces, etc. Just remember - your 1 pint jar equals 2 cups, and the cream will take up most of that room. So leave out some of the cream if you plan on adding other ingredients.


ENJOY, and HAVE FUN!!

0 comments: