In the context of Ben and Jerry's
inexplicably coming out in favor of giving the Russian government a free hand in Ukraine, here is a recipe for how you can make ice cream of similar quality at home with nothing but a freezer and a hand mixer if you want to save some cash and don't feel like indirectly supporting rising global authoritarianism.
The recipe takes:
1c heavy cream
1/2c whole milk
1 egg
1/3 c sugar
1/2t salt
(DO NOT USE WHIPPING CREAM! There is a HUGE difference, believe it or not, and this ruined my first batch when I most recently moved. You are looking for products with ~35% milkfat at minimum. What this is called will vary by country.)
I usually make a double recipe, which makes just under two pints. First, cream together the sugar and eggs, then mix in the rest along with any other liquid ingredients you want to add (more on that below). Contrary to what a LOT of people will tell you, in my experience beating in a lot more air at this stage is not necessary - at best it will do nothing and at worst it will result in an airier, less creamy result.
Put the bowl in the freezer for 15-20 minutes. Once that time is up, go in with a spatula to scrape down the sides, then beat the ice cream again. Repeat this for like three hours or until the result looks like half-melted ice cream, then mix in any solid ingredients you want to add, move it to a covered container, and freeze overnight.
What's actually happening here? The difference between ice cream and just a block of frozen cream is the size of the ice crystals - the latter are large, making the result inedibly hard, while the former are small, making it soft and creamy. What you are doing when you re-mix the ice cream every few minutes is breaking up the crystals which are forming, not giving them time to build off each other and become large. Because of this, the actual interval at which you need to stir and how long you need to do this to get a good result depends heavily on how cold your freezer is - the colder, the shorter the process but the more frequently you will need to stir. This also depends on the type of bowl you are using - a metal bowl will do the job quicker but need more stirring than a plastic or glass one because it conducts the cold quicker. Depending on how powerful your mixer is, you might also need to spend more or less time stirring each time. Once you get the hang of how the mixture should look at particular times, you can also start increasing the interval later in the process, because the most critical point is the first ~hour, when the first crystals are forming. This of course depends on all the factors listed above.
The real major advantage of doing this as opposed to store bought (besides not supporting a foreign policy which puts the lives and freedoms of 40+ million people in unnecessary risk) is that it lets you put in whatever you want. The key is to put any additional ingredients in at the right time - liquids and powders go in at the start, solids (no matter how small) go in after you've finished the last mixing, otherwise they will sink to the bottom. There are bajillions of recipes online, including dupes for just about every B&J flavor you can think of. Here are my favorites which I've used often. All of these are for my usual double recipe, halve it if you want to make a single. But honestly, with the amount of time it takes and how fast it will be gone, why not double it?
Vanilla - 1T of vanilla, or a vanilla bean if you can get your hands on it. I've used a real bean exactly once, and there is a difference, but it isn't worth the cost of buying one IMO.
Butter pecan - Saute 1c of halved pecans in 1/2c of butter until soft. Cool the butter and add that in too. Excellent - tastes so much better than storebought butter pecan.
Strawberry - cut half the sugar from the original recipe and put it in a bowl to sit with a pint of chopped strawberries and a tablespoon of lemon juice. Fabulous for hot summer picnics.
Chocolate mint - 2t of peppermint extract and 100g of chopped chocolate (I tend to use ~70% dark). My personal favorite. Peppermint extract will change your life if you like to bake, by the way - homemade thin mints are a pain in the rear end but really impress at potlucks. Also, I've never heard a Girl Scout actively advocate for greater emphasis on deterring Russian aggression in Europe while selling those things, so they probably deserve to lose some business too.
I have also tried but would not recommend blueberry ice cream. It's OK, but it's so much better to make vanilla and have it with blueberry pie. I'd recommend
this recipe. Don't worry about the tapioca starch - you can totally use potato and corn too.
I've been using this for a few years now, and once you've got the technique down it will get you B&J/Haagen-Dazs quality ice cream for about half the cost, depending on the local price of heavy cream. 3 hours seems like a long time, but it actually takes very little active work; for me it's an ideal weekend project which I can do on the side while I'm reading or cooking something else - YMMV. Doing this will contribute, if only in a tiny way, to fighting global fascism, and, if you need any more reason, in my experience homemade desserts - especially something like ice cream, which most people don't even know
can be made without a special machine - are a sure-fire way to impress members of your preferred gender.
Or just buy Haagen-Dazs. That's cool too.
