Raspberry Ice Cream
Occasionally on Facebook or in e-mails I see one of those lists that contain things that “kids born today” will never experience. Like VCRs or walking across the room to change the TV channel. At the risk of totally dating myself here, I’d like to add something else to the list: Hand-crank ice cream makers. Oh, sure, kids today have to occasionally stand in line at Molly Moo’s or Coldstone, so I guess they’ve suffered some anticipation angst in the name of ice cream. But like so many aging adults, I just have to say it’s just not the same as when we were kids and had to make the stuff the old-fashioned way.
My memories of making homemade ice cream are always centered around a little town in the southeast corner of Kansas, where my grandparents lived. Inevitably, and much to my dad’s chagrin, it seems we always visited my grandparents smack dab in the middle of summer when the heat, to say the least, was stifling and downright miserable. So, it seemed that the proverbial lipstick on the Kansas pig was homemade ice cream. (“It’s hot, buggy and godforsaken here, but, hey, we can make ice cream!”). Grandpa would pull out the old manual crank ice cream maker while Grandma mixed up the ice cream fixin’s. The outer bucket of the freezer was filled with ice and rock salt, which served as the freezer. The kids got in on the act by clamoring for their turn at manning the crank. For those of you who have never done it, the fun and appeal of turning the crank wears off after about 2 1/2 minutes. Which is unfortunate given that the ice cream had to be churned, constantly and at a pretty good pace, for about an hour before it was ready. After enough whining and hopeless cranking, the kids were excused of their duty by some woeful-looking adult who would sit, one hand on the crank and the other holding a cold beer, sweating and silently cursing the advent of ice cream. With the burden of responsibility lifted from our tiny shoulders, we were free to do what kids do best: Prance, hover and incessantly chant, “Is it ready yet?” for an hour while the grownups did all the hard work. God I loved making ice cream back then.
Years later, my dad purchased an electronic version of the old hand-crank machine. I’m sure this seemed like a newfangled contraption to him. The outer bucket was plastic, instead of wood, and electricity provided the cranking. But it still needed ice and rock salt to freeze the ice cream. Dad would always put some old towel down under the bucket to protect the deck or sidewalk from the salty sweat that apparently was produced by the melting ice during the crank. Sounds similar to the adults cranking the handle in Kansas, doesn’t it?
Fast forward a few decades, and here I sit enjoying my homemade ice cream from my little Cuisinart
Happy Entertaining!
Whisk the eggs, sugar and salt together
Slowly add the warm milk to “temper”
Pour the egg/milk mixture back into the pan
Cook until thick and you have custard!
Click here to get recipe
YUM..:)