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Making Ice Cream

Yesterday when I mentioned the ice cream ingredients, Janna, a long time reader whom I’ve never met but I feel like we would make great best friends, commented that she does make their ice cream in her Cuisinart ice cream maker. Well . . now I feel kinda dumb because I have one of those. In fact, I had one for many years, then a friend gave me this one for my birthday 6 or 7 years ago. I gave the older one to Chad and I’ve been using the newer one but I think I only used it twice since we’ve moved here and that was to make ice cream for Addie and me before Vince got here.

I considered getting rid of it because it takes up a good chunk of space. Glad I didn’t.

Speaking of healthy ice cream (NOT!), my favorite is this strawberry concoction made with Big Red soda and Eagle Brand milk. The recipe calls for a package of frozen strawberries but I like it better without the strawberries. Of course, it’s the same as if I poured Eagle Brand milk into a glass of Big Red so . . what’s not to love?

Vince doesn’t like the Big Red ice cream at all and I certainly don’t mind eating the whole thing by myself but I always feel bad making ice cream just for me . . or I tell Vince that anyway.

To prove I’m not really that selfish and thinking only of myself . . Vince loves black walnuts and I do not. I think they taste like moldy shortening but he loves them. There’s a big commercial black walnut grower in Stockton, MO, which isn’t far from here. I ordered a bunch of black walnuts during black walnut season and I have no idea what to do with all of them so I searched the internet for a black walnut ice cream recipe and found this one.

The ice cream looks like it would be delicious for someone who likes black walnuts but it looks like a real pain to make. There are so many steps and things have to wait for one to cool and one to do something else . . it almost takes two days to make this unless you want ice cream at 10 p.m. I’m not opposed to eating ice cream any time of day or night but Vince probably would like it around 5 p.m.

  1. Heat the walnuts in the milk, then remove from heat for one hour.
  2. Strain the walnuts out.
  3. Pasteurize the eggs. I probably didn’t have to do that but I wasn’t sure they would get heated enough for me to feel comfortable eating them. That took about two hours.
  4. After you add everything together and cook it, pour it into a container and refrigerate for three hours.
  5. Then put it in the ice cream maker for 20 to 30 minutes.
  6. Then pour it into a container and put it in the freezer for four hours.

That is an all day process! I toasted the walnuts and pasteurized the eggs last night. It isn’t like standing over the stove all day but still . . it’s not like mixing Big Red soda and Eagle Brand milk together!

We’ll see how it turns out. It has the potential to be really good. Maybe toasted black walnuts taste better than raw black walnuts. Maybe I’ll like it but I am 100% sure I’ll like the Big Red ice cream better.

I’m hoping I can do all this without Vince figuring out what I’m doing and he’ll be surprised.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. I’m with Vince on the black walnuts! Love them, but usually only use them in chocolate fudge. I don’t know that I’d want them in ice cream. We have several large black walnut trees on our property, so I get all I want and store them in the freezer. 🙂

    • He loves storebought black walnut ice cream but it’s hard to find so I’m hoping the homemade will be even better and definitely easier to find. 🙂

  2. My favorite? One scoop of strawberry and a large scoop of black walnut together! Don’t get homemade very often anymore, prefer it to be plain vanilla.

    • Now you’re going to make me have to buy a second ice cream maker. That little Cuisinart ice cream maker is perfect for one person. It only makes 1-1/2 quarts max. I think the black walnut mix I made is barely 1 quart. It will poof up to be probably a full container but it’s electric – easy to make and easy to clean up.

      • Judy, my ice cream maker is like yours except I have 2 of the pieces to freeze. I believe you could get another container and then you freeze both and can make 1 batch after the first one. I did that on the 4th so we had extra ice cream!

        • Yes, I can but the second container is $30 so it made more sense just to buy a whole new maker. I ordered the 2 quart one and I shouldn’t have to scale down most recipes.

  3. My friend has a Black Walnut tree. He makes earrings, and other hewelry from them. I have 2 pair of earrings. Always receive compliments on them.

  4. My favorite easy ice cream is orange pineapple. 1 two-liter Fanta orange soda, Eagle brand milk, I can crushed pineapple. That makes 4 quarts. You can make it without the pineapple but my family likes it better with it.

    • We always used pineapple with cream soda and Eagle Brand milk but orange soda sounds great too.

  5. I had a friend who couldn’t eat regular (English?) walnuts, but could eat black walnuts.

    I have seen home made black walnut ice cream recommended as the ultimate for a root beer float.

  6. Here is hoping Vince doesn’t read the blog and spoil the surprise! I love ice cream but most would say I’m boring as vanilla is my fav!

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