Tuesday, August 12, 2008

TWD: Blueberry Sour Cream Ice Cream and How to Make Ice Cream Without an Ice Cream Maker


This week's Tuesdays with Dorie (TWD) recipe was chosen by Dolores of Chronicles in Culinary Curiosity: Blueberry Sour Cream Ice Cream. I love being a part of TWD - it has challenged me to develop my baking skills in so many ways. I've had so many firsts with the group - brioche, eclairs, homemade pie crust, scones, etc. Never have I been more happy to be a part of this group than now because thanks to TWD, I have now discovered that I can make ice cream at home without an ice cream maker!!!


I have long been drooling over all the ice cream recipes on everyone else's blogs, regretting a previous decision. You see, when I purchased my KitchenAid Mixer, there was a mail in rebate for a free attachment - I could choose between the ice cream maker or the pasta maker attachment. I was trying to be 'good' and decided that if I had an ice cream maker, I would make way more ice cream than I should be eating, so I opted for the pasta maker attachment instead. Oh, how I have been regretting that decision all summer!


When I saw that ice cream was this week's pick, I thought that I would have to sit this one out. But then a link was posted to David Lebovitz' blog with an alternative method. I have now learned that it is possible to make smooth and creamy ice cream at home without an ice cream maker! I don't think you can understand how truly happy this has made me!! :) I no longer have any regrets about choosing that pasta maker attachment.


The recipe was very straightforward. Just cook the blueberries with some sugar, lemon juice, lemon zest, and a pinch of salt. Then blend it into a puree and add the heavy cream and sour cream. That's it! At this point, you would either pour the mixture into your ice cream maker, or if you're without a machine like I am, into your baking dish.


Then you just blend/mix the ice cream mixture every 30 minutes until it is fully formed. I was extremely wary of whether this method would work, but imagine my excitement and surprise when, after a few hours, I had successfully made my own ice cream! Instead of one or two large scoops, I decided to play around with the plating and used my cookie scoop to fill my bowl with lots of mini scoops.


I wasn't sure if I would like the flavor of the sour cream in this, but the tartness of the sour cream complimented the sweetness of the blueberries nicely. My husband thought the flavor was a bit too strong, like I could have used twice as much heavy cream and ended up with a better, more subtle flavor, but I thought it was just right. Perhaps next time I will try it with more cream and see if my husband is right...


Thanks again to Dolores for choosing Blueberry Sour Cream Ice Cream this week. I have discovered how to make my own ice cream at home, and you know I will be trying all sorts of ice cream recipes now! I've included the method for making ice cream without an ice cream maker below, but if you would like the actual recipe for the blueberry sour cream ice cream, you can find it here. Make sure you visit the TWD Blog Roll to see how everyone else enjoyed this frosty treat.

*Update: When I first made this, I wasn't sure if I was supposed to cover the dish before placing it in the freezer, so I covered it. The process took much longer than 2-3 hours and towards the end, I decided to see if it would help if I took the lid off. As soon as I took the lid off, my ice cream came together within about 1 hour. I concluded that the process had taken longer because I had covered my dish. I have since tried making ice cream again using this method, this time leaving my dish uncovered. It still took about 5-6 hours. Unfortunately, I introduced another factor the second time around - a deeper dish. So now I am unsure if the longer time is from covering the dish, or from using a deeper dish. The next time I make ice cream, I will use a shallow dish, uncovered, and then let you know! But rest assured that if it takes longer than 2-3 hours, don't be discouraged... just continue mixing every 30 minutes and your patience will be rewarded!

** Another update: I made some ice cream again, this time using a 13x9-inch pyrex glass pan. The larger pan gave the cream more room to spread out, thus giving it a larger surface area. I'm happy to report that came together nicely after about 3 hours!

For recipe tips, click here.

Making Ice Cream Without an Ice Cream Maker
from living the sweet life in paris by David Lebovitz

Prepare your ice cream mixture, then chill it over an ice bath.

Put a deep baking dish, or bowl made of plastic, stainless steel or something durable in the freezer, and pour your custard mixture into it. (I used a 2-1/2 qt oval CorningWare - do not cover it!)

After forty-five minutes, open the door and check it.

As it starts to freeze near the edges, remove it from the freezer and stir it vigorously with a spatula or whisk. Really beat it up and break up any frozen sections. Return to freezer.

Continue to check the mixture every 30 minutes, stirring vigorously as it's freezing. If you have one, you can use a hand-held mixer for best results, or use a stick-blender or hand-held mixer. But since we're going low-tech here, you can also use just a spatula or a sturdy whisk along with some modest physical effort.

I used my Braun Multiquick Professional Hand Blender (model MR5550MBC-HC) for this task. It's nice to find another use for this, besides my favorite tomato basil soup :)





Keep checking periodically and stirring while it freezes (by hand or with the electric mixer) until the ice cream is frozen. It will likely take 2-3 hours to be ready.

Transfer the ice cream to a covered storage container until ready to serve.

41 comments:

  1. I love the color of the ice cream. I'm going to have to check out the recipe. My kids are big fans blueberries and ice cream.
    By the way that was a great idea making smaller scoops. The pix came out really good. How'd you get your scoops so perfectly round?
    :-)Ingrid

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  2. Great job! I'm impressed with how beautifully your ice cream came out without the use of an ice cream maker!!

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  3. Your method is making me feel bad for not trying it! ;) Looks great and now I have to try out ice cream with that method. Thanks!

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  4. I love all the little mini scoops! I read David's entry a while ago about making ice cream without an ice cream maker but was skeptical about how successful it would be. Good to know it worked for you! Perhaps I'll try it.

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  5. It looks great! I loved the way you've piled up all the little scoops! It'a looks as creamy as using one made in an ice cream maker!

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  6. I wish I could grab a spoon and dig into one of those scoops! Your ice cream looks fabulous!

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  7. So glad that you enjoy being a member of TWD - I surely enjoy viewing each of the treats that you make for the challenges, just like this ice cream!! :0)

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  8. Very cute little teeny scoops! I think you made the right choice when you got the pasta maker too. Your ice cream looks great--machine or not!

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  9. So awesome that the non-ice cream maker method worked for you! Love all the mini scoops. Reminds me of dibs! Great job!
    Clara @ iheartfood4thought

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  10. This looks great! It's interesting to see it made without an ice cream maker. I'm glad you no longer regret your decision to not get the ice cream maker attachment!

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  11. So glad it worked without an ice cream maker! I love all the mini scoops!

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  12. I used my ice cream maker and my ice cream didn't turn out nearly as perfect as yours! Great job!

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  13. The color of that ice cream is so beautiful! It sounds so delicious and refreshing!

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  14. First off, your pics are GORGEOUS - the frostiness of the ice cream is positively drool-worthy! And I'm glad you don't regret the KA attachment decision :)

    Have a delicious day!

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  15. WOW, you'd never know you didn't use an ice cream freezer! That looks great.

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  16. Well, I have an ice cream maker, which is fun, but I don't have an immersion blender or a cookie scoop, both of which I've had my eye on for a while. The mini-scoops of ice cream are such a cute idea.

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  17. I still like my ice cream maker though...I make a lot of ice cream. :)
    I did not use as much sour cream but then again I didn't do blueberry.
    I like the look of all the mini scoops.

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  18. I'm almost jealous of the people who made it without an ice cream maker - it makes me feel like I cheated! Love the mini scoops.

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  19. I love all those scoops. What a great post.

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  20. Oooooooooooh. How I've been complaining that I don't have an ice cream maker all summer! I am SO excited. Looks delicious!

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  21. Isn't it great to discover a new skill? Kudos for making your ice cream old school. I wimped out and went for a rewind...
    Nancy
    The Dogs Eat the Crumbs

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  22. That ice cream looks absolutely gorgeous! I can't eat blueberries! Why are you torturing me? ;)

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  23. Great post! Your ice cream scoops are so terribly inviting! You did an awesome job making this, all by yourself! Well done.

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  24. I love how you can see all the little balls of ice cream in the bowl! Very neat!

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  25. Wow, congrats on making ice cream without an ice cream maker! I love the mini scoops and great blueberry color! :D

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  26. What lovely icecream! the non-icecream maker method certainly works.

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  27. holy smokes--i can't believe ice cream with such perfect texture was made without an ice cream maker! i guess i no longer have an excuse to avoid making copious amounts of ice cream for myself...
    nice work, and thanks for sharing this method! :)

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  28. oh darn.. how did you do such a good job of scooping out the icecreams? by the time i got my hands on a camera from its trip back from Bali.. my ice cream wasn't exactly that creamy anymore. arghs.. great job anyway!

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  29. Great job on your "hand made" ice cream!

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  30. I'm so glad to hear one can get such wonderful ice cream without an ice cream maker, Jaime!
    And the color of this ice cream is absolutely amazing. Well done, darling!

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  31. Wow...you're telling me I can make ice cream at home without an ice cream maker? My life has just been changed! Thanks for the delicious recipe. :)

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  32. That's awesome that you figured out how to make ice cream without an ice cream maker. Kudos to you!!! Looks great!

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  33. Thanks Jaime for welcoming me to TWD. You're ice cream looks great! I'm looking forward to next week, since it's my first time.

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  34. Wow! I can't believe you did it without an ice cream maker! Great work!

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  35. Wow - your ice cream looks great, but making it without the freezer sounds like a time consuming effort! You have a lot of patience, I bet. . . I'm more of a gotta have it right now person! Good job.

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  36. Love the mini-scoops. I keep trying to figure out how to take a much better picture.

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  37. It's funny, I chose the ice cream attachment figuring I could always make pasta my grandmother's old-fashioned way. Nice to know there's a reasonable alternative to both attachments. You did a GREAT job with David's method.

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  38. Great job making ice cream without an ice cream maker! It looks really good!

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  39. Kudos to you for making ice cream without a maker! Just FYI, don't feel badly about not getting the kitchen aid attachment. I bought one (expensive, too!) and hated it. It never worked well for me. I ended up throwing it away after numerous failed batches. I couldn't get Kitchen Aid to replace it for me or refund and got so mad at them! I bought the Cuisinart machine for half the price and it works much better.

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  40. Beautiful ice cream and good job making it w/o an ice cream machine. They take up so much space in the kitchen.

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  41. I always make Ice Cream (love it) but I dont have An Ice cream machine! so I love this post, love colour, love all....Gloria

    I could stay here for ever and ever look your recipes and pictures!!

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