In honor of National Ice Cream Month

I recently cleaned out a closet in my house and found an old hand-crank Donvier ice cream maker that I had as a kid.  My mom gave it to me when I moved into this house five years ago, and it was put on a shelf and forgotten about.  When I found it a couple of months ago, I thought I should give it a try.  I tried two of the recipes that were included with the machine…the French Vanilla didn’t come out quite right, but the French Chocolate Silk was perfect.  I also tried the “low fat” recipes that called for only milk and no cream…I’d recommend sticking with the traditional recipes if you care at all about texture and flavor.

My sister then gave me a lesson in the different kinds of ice cream: custard, milk, and gelato.  The Donvier recipes are mostly all custard, which involve cooking a mixture of egg, milk, and sugar on the stove.  The trickiest part is cooking custard – the texture will not be right if the stove is too hot, if you leave it cooking for too long, or if you don’t stir enough.  But aside from that 10 minutes of cooking, it’s really easy!  And the finished product is wonderfully creamy and smooth.

French Chocolate Silk

Ingredients:

• 1 cup sugar
• 3 egg yolks
• 1 1/2 cups milk
• 2 cups cream
• 1/3 cup cocoa
• 1 tsp. vanilla

Beat the milk and egg yolks together and blend in the sugar.  Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until the mixture is thick enough to coat the spoon.  Remove from the heat and sift cocoa into the mix.  Beat until well blended.  Cool.  Add the cream and vanilla, and mix well.  Put in the fridge overnight for the best results.  The next day, pour the mixture into your ice cream maker, and in about 20 minutes you’ll have delicious, fresh ice cream!