A Big Scoop Of Homemade Goodness

Nothing says the summer than a big scoop of ice cream. It;sa cool, creamy reminder that life is good right now. Imagine, though if that scoop could become better? How? Make it yourself. Homemade ice cream is a wonderful treat, plain or drenched in chocolate, and fruit.

New contributor and director of the New York Times director for cooking videos Scott Loittsch wrote about this homemade treat in today's New York Times Wednesday Food section.Mr. Loittsch has a good background in making the treat. He used to love making it with his mom and that love led to a professional ice cream course at Penn State's Department of Science. Half the fun, as any home ice cream maker knows is creating your own flavors - ones that you can;t find at the local ice cream shops and groceries.He gives excellent advice for making the perfect scoop. He recommends starting with an unusual and secret ingredient - cream cheese. It has stabilizers in it ,just llke commercially made ice cream/It makes the texture softer  and creamier. This also makes for a more malleable texture, easy to scoop.It does add a slight tang but this will only improve the flavor. Use about four ounces of it when making the base.Keep in mind to add it as the very last ingredient.After the milk has been warmed  pour it over room temperature cream cheese to prevent lumps or curdling. Mr. Loittsch recommends using a fine mesh sieve to break up any lumps if there are any.

Another must is that the ice cream should be well chilled. Set it in an ice bath before chilling will give it a head start .I has to be kept in the fridge for four hours at the very least and at the very most two days. THis allows for th e flavor develop and deepen. A well chilled ice cream also makes for smoother churning .It needs to be stored in a metal loaf pan. Its benefits are twofold By freezing the pan before making the base it insures the just turned mix lands in an ice cold container. This helps minimize how much of the base melts between churning and freezing and as a result how many ice crystals form.Two, the loaf pan makes it easier to add layers and mix ins. Mix ins can be graham crackers and strawberry jam along with more cream cheese for Mr. LOittsch's strawberry cheese cake ice cream. He also gives a basic recipe that can have such as steeped ingredients like mint or crushed coffee beans. Try his peanut butter pie ice cream that has two tablespoons of creamy peanut butter added in a long with bittersweet chocolate and chocolate sandwich ro wafer cookies. 

Happiness is ice cream on  a hot August day. Create your own .Its' a fun delicious  way to keep cool.