CAPTION: I made this batch myself, it turned out tasty!:)
Among the Old Order Amish homemade ice cream has traditionally been a winter treat. Without electric-powered freezers, winter is when ice is most plentiful outdoors so for the Amish this makes sense. For the rest of us, ice cream is a summer staple. I remember as a kid many summers making homemade ice cream at my uncle's house, using one of those mixers and lots of rock salt. A few years ago Rachel and I received one of those "ice cream balls" for Christmas. You put all the ingredients in and then roll it around to mix it up. But it was an awful lot of rolling around for ultimately very little actual ice cream.
Personally, I'm just not enough of an ice cream fan to put a ton of work into making some. Gimme cookies or cake any day over ice cream.
An Amish woman in New York, however, recently sent me a recipe for homemade ice cream that looked so easy that I had to try making it. As is so often the case with Amish recipes, the instructions were very spare...but the recipe intrigued me enough to try. It is VERY easy, but the recipe makes 2 gallons of ice cream which was a bit much for us. So you might want to half the recipe. WARNING: The recipe also calls for raw eggs. I bought some organic eggs and took my chances. That's a judgment call on your part. If you don't want to use raw eggs, use egg substitute or just don't add the eggs. It probably would still be OK without. I've tweaked the instructions a bit to make the recipe more clear. I will also say that if you are expecting smooth, silky Ben & Jerry's type ice cream, you'll be disappointed. Homemade ice cream always seems a little grainier than mass manufactured.
- 2 1 /2 quarts of milk
- 2 1 /2 cups of sugar
- 4 eggs, beaten
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- 2 tablespoons flour
- 2 tablespoons vanilla
- 1 can sweetened condensed milk
- 1 can evaporated milk
- 1 /2 cup of pure maple syrup
- Heat two quarts of milk and sugar to boiling over medium heat.
- Reserve half quart of the milk. In a separate bowl, combine flour, cornstarch and eggs with enough milk to make a smooth paste. You may not need all of the reserved milk. Stir paste into milk. Cool and add the two cans of milk. Then stir in maple syrup. Pour into gallon buckets and TIGHTLY SEAL and then freeze. May take up to 12 hours to freeze completely. Remove from freezer several times to stir. Then eat as is or top with chocolate syrup.
Carolyn Price
I really do not think there is a concern about the raw eggs, as the eggs are put in to boiling milk. I would think that would be hot enough to take care of anything in the eggs that could make a person sick. Just my take on it. Sounds yummy.
Karon Williams
Tthe maple ice cream sounds delicous, can't wait to try it.