Deep Freeze Part II

In continuing with the theme from my previous post, I want to share with you some more frozen delights of this or any season...ice cream! I realize that ice cream is not your typical winter snack, but I'm talking about homemade ice cream, which is always a special treat no matter how frosty it may be outdoors.

I recently decided to bite the bullet and get a kitchen appliance that I've always wanted (no, there's no pun here; I already have a Magic Bullet!). My desire for this particular machine has been developing over years of living in a tiny apartment with very limited kitchen space. I've balked at the cost and been undecided about the model and colour that I would want, but finally, after much consideration, I got one. 

A KitchenAid Stand Mixer (insert angelic music here).

This particular beauty is of the Artisan series and the colour is Bay Leaf. I ordered it from Amazon.ca and it arrived about 4 days later (hooray for free nation-wide shipping!).

I couldn't help but order the ice cream attachment as well, since one of my biggest beefs about living Up North is that it's difficult to get good ice cream up here. The drive from the supermarket is over two hours. We have a little refrigerated cooler for the truck, but I've been afraid to transport ice cream in it because I'd hate for it to melt. Re-frozen ice cream is just never as good as the fresh stuff. I suppose now that winter is setting in we could bring back ice cream more easily now, as we'd only have to keep it in the bed of the truck in the freezing weather and it would stay set. Of course there is ice cream for sale in the tiny and basic grocery store in our town, but it's only your standard and very bland vanilla and chocolate. And it's not cheap. So all of the factors considered, I feel that the attachment was a great investment both for our wallets and our tastebuds!

My other purchase in this order was a cookbook that has been highly recommended by a friend (and I've tested a few of the recipes so I know it's a good one!). The book is called "The Perfect Scoop" by David Lebovitz and it's full of fantastic ice cream recipes, but also has frozen yogurt, sorbets, granitas, sauces, accompaniments, ice cream vessels, and great helpful tips for aspiring ice cream afficionados like myself.

The very first recipe that I tried was the one that I knew would impress my partner the most: Chocolate-Peanut Butter (pictured on the right above). This fantasically easy and simple recipe produced delicious results; we can't get enough! It's rich and creamy with a beautiful blend of cocoa and peanut. This would be the ultimate ice cream for a banana split, or just great with sliced banana pieces. 

The second kind I made was Honey Lavender (the middle one). I'm crazy for lavender, so I used some lovely raw honey given to me by a friend and some dried lavender I had bought at a tea shop. The only thing I added to the recipe was a bit of food colouring to give the ice cream a purplish finish. Unfortunately I halved the recipe but forgot to halve the lavender, so the result was a bit too floral (some might say soapy) but I think it's still palatable; I just wouldn't want to eat a lot at one sitting, which is probably for the best anyway.

By the third run I decided that I was ready to experiment a little and create a flavour not in the book. I used the Peanut Butter ice cream recipe, but added Nutella instead. The result (pictured on the left) was not as great as I was hoping for. The initial flavour is nice; first chocolate, followed by hazelnut, but there is a bit of an oily taste that is not the greatest. Also, the texture of the ice cream was a bit grainy. Looking at the Nutella ingredients list, the modified palm oil listed second is probably the reason for both the taste and texture malfunctions. There appears to be a reason why Nutella ice cream is not in the book. Next time I'll try a chocolate-hazelnut recipe and save the pre-made spread for my toast.

Of the three flavours, chocolate peanut butter was hands-down the best so far. In fact, I had to resort to threats to keep it around long enough to take a photo with the other two flavours. The thing about the KitchenAid ice cream attachment is that the bowl needs to be frozen overnight in between each batch, so I needed so keep at least a scoop for the photos for three days. Not easy to do when it tastes so good! I plan on making lots of ice cream in the future, and would love any ideas for interesting flavours.

As a side note, the bowls featured in this post are Homer Laughlin "Virginia Rose" china. They were my great-grandmother's, and they're perfect for keeping dessert portions under control. I feel that taste is the most important part of eating, not huge portions. Small bowls are a great way to savour each bite slowly.

Of course, there is more to the KitchenAid mixer than ice cream. Bread, cake, cookies and sauces are only the beginning; the possibilities are endless! My lovely appliance is currently resting in its new home on the counter...but I'm sure it won't be there for long, especially with Christmas around the corner!