Never mind ill-advised Chop contestants, you really can make your own ice cream

From silky smooth ice cream to frozen cocktails, the best icy-cold treats are homemade Laura Brehaut

The world of ice cream has changed immensely since David Lebovitz’s seminal book on the subject came out more than a decade ago. Artisanal ice cream parlours are flourishing, and machines – from hand-crank to high-tech – are continually hitting the market.

With the advent of mix-ins – creative additions including candies, cookies, nuts and fruit – we’ve moved well beyond the constraints of 31 flavours. Today, each scoop offers an opportunity for hedonistic customization in the form of ripples, swirls and chunks.

“I’m really into mix-ins. I love the process of making them all and mixing them in. The older I get, the fewer pleasures I have,” Lebovitz laughs. “And I love chopping up toffee or swirling things in ice cream. It’s just one of my favourite things.”

Of his eight books, Lebovitz says that The Perfect Scoop (Ten Speed Press) was the most fun to write. And his ice cream appreciation has only grown since it was originally published in 2007. When the publisher asked if he’d like to write a revised and updated edition for its tenth anniversary, he jumped at the opportunity.

“In the last 10 years, mix-ins have become very popular. Part of that is the internet. As we all know, people are like, ‘How do we take this over the top?’ and I didn’t want to go over the top – I wanted to take it to the top,” he says with a laugh.

“If you’re going to do something, do it for flavour, not just because it’s fun or it sounds interesting. There’s a candied bacon (and bourbon) ice cream in the book and I actually love the candied bacon. I wasn’t just doing it for shock value. So it’s always flavour first.”

In 200 recipes, the new edition runs the gamut of frozen treats: ice creams, frozen yogurts, sorbets, granitas, gelatos and accompaniments. Lebovitz retired a few recipes from the first edition to make room for a dozen new recipes, including more frozen cocktails (Negroni Slush, Gimlet Sorbet) and mix-ins.

In the midst of a small-batch ice cream boom, the most compelling reason to make your own is all about the experience: “I think it tastes better,” Lebovtiz says. And once you’ve mastered custard-making (the basis of French-style ice cream), a smooth and silky scoop is well within your grasp.

“Ice cream isn’t fussy like cakes or cookies. If you add an extra teaspoon of milk or you add a little less chocolate, it’s fine. It’s not like the whole thing is going to collapse,” Lebovitz says.

“I’ve made thousands of batches of ice cream. Once and a while something happens and you learn something, and you go on from there.”

Excerpted from The Perfect Scoop, Revised and Updated by David Lebovitz. Copyright © 2018 by David Lebovitz. Photographs copyright © 2018 by Ed Anderson. Published in the United States by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York. Reproduced by arrangement with the Publisher. All rights reserved.