Make ice cream at home

Don’t chase the trucks!

Summer is synonymous with ice cream. And I think it would be safe to say that it is a universal experience. But making ice cream at home has changed since I was a child.

When we were young, my sisters and our cousins made handcranked ice cream using a White Mountain Wooden Bucket Ice Cream Maker that used ice and rock salt to freeze the ice cream. My grandmother loved having her grandkids use the hand cranker. The wooden-bucket style icecream maker is still popular today and comes with an electric motor, and the option of the hand cranker for a nostalgic experience. My mother used the electric motor exclusively and when she wanted to make smaller quantities of ice cream, she used the electric machines with the inserts that you leave in the freezer until you are ready to make ice cream. I’ve used those models, but the truth is that I never have enough room to leave the insert in the freezer for 24 or more hours, and so I rarely make ice cream.

But every summer, I still have a yearning to make my own ice cream. Since you can now buy ice cream machines that come with a compressor, I decided that this summer I was going to start making ice cream at home. With a self refrigerating machine, you don’t have to plan in advance and remember to freeze the insert, and you can make batch after batch if you are making different flavors. The machine that I choose after consulting a few ice cream experts was the Cuisinart ICE-100. It is streamlined and doesn’t take up too much room on your counter. It is also very simple to operate and works like a dream. The machine is mostly the compressor with a small bucket insert that holds and churns the ice cream, and can be removed for easy cleaning. My ice cream was ready in 45 minutes, and the timer can be set for up to 60 minutes.

Now that I had the machine, I needed a recipe. I decided to turn to my friend David Lebovitz’ newly revised ice cream book, “The Perfect Scoop.” This book has something for everyone! I grew up making custard ice creams with egg yolks and David has very good instructions for RECIPE » PAGE 2

ELIZABETH KARMEL VIA ASSOCIATED PRESS Homemade ice cream in Amagansett, N.Y. This dish is from a recipe by Elizabeth Karmel.