All Things Ice Cream Blog

Ok, so I recently found a little shop in downtown Portland, ME called Bubble Maineia.  They make the best “bubble teas” I have had since I first found out about them a few years ago.  I bought a chocolate coconut milkshake with bubbles the last 2 times I stopped by.  It was such a delicious flavor combination that I tried making it at home with chocolate milk and coconut milk.  It didn’t quite come out the same.

After searching online, I found a great chocolate coconut ice cream recipe by The Nourishing Gourmet.

Chocolate Coconut Milk Ice Cream

3 cups of coconut milk (about two cans)
2/3 cup of cocoa powder
6 tablespoons agave syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Whisk cocoa powder in a small amount of coconut milk, until smooth. Then add the rest of the ingredients and whisk until well combined. Or dump all ingredients together and blend with a stick blender. Make according to your machines instructions.

Of course you’ll have to adjust the quantities to make it in your Play & Freeze.  And you can substitute sugar or another sweetener for the agave syrup.

This is same blogger also made a raspberry coconut ice cream!

Raspberry Coconut Milk Ice Cream

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Feel free to play around with the recipe, by changing what sweetener you use, taking out the lemon zest, or adding in lemon juice instead (lemon juice won’t be quite as strong as the zest).

2 cans of coconut milk (full fat), whisked until smooth
zest from one lemon (make sure you don’t get any of the bitter pithy white part)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 cups of raspberries, fresh or frozen (defrosted slightly)
6 tablespoons of agave syrup

Directions: Blend the raspberries in a food processor or blender with a little bit of the coconut milk until completely pureed. Add to the rest of the ingredients and make according to your ice cream maker’s instructions. Freeze to “ripen” the flavor for at least a few hours and serve.

Now all I need to do is pick up some tapioca pearls and I can have my own bubble tea milkshakes at home.

Man, now I’m hungry!  Where’s my Play & Freeze?

Last night I had the opportunity to catch Good Eats on the Food Network.  This episode was called “Churn, Baby, Churn” and as you may have guessed, it was all about making ice cream!

Alton Brown shared some “trade secrets” for making excellent ice cream.  He also clarified that the ice cream recipes including eggs are more like a custard and are called New York Style.  While the ones without eggs are called Philadelphia Style.  Personally I prefer Philadelphia style ice creams.  I’ll save the eggs for breakfast!

Here is the Serious Vanilla Ice Cream recipe he shared:

2 cups half-and-half
1 cup whipping cream
1 cup minus 2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons peach preserves (not jelly)
1 vanilla bean, split and scraped

Combine all ingredients (including the bean and its pulp) in a large saucepan and place over medium heat. Attach a frying or candy thermometer to inside of pan. (see note below) Stirring occasionally, bring the mixture to 170 degrees F. Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly. Remove the hull of the vanilla bean, pour mixture into lidded container and refrigerate mixture overnight to mellow flavors and texture.Freeze mixture in ice cream freezer according to unit’s instructions. The mixture will not freeze hard in the machine. Once the volume has increased by 1/2 to 3/4 times, and reached a soft serve consistency, spoon the mixture back into a lidded container and harden in the freezer at least 1 hour before serving.

NOTE: If you do not have a thermometer, bring the mixture just barely to a simmer. As soon as you see a bubble hit the surface, remove it from the heat. Do not let it boil.

This recipe would work great in the Play & Freeze.  The cooler the mixture and the longer it has had to set, the better tasting the ice cream.  Even though the recipes for the ice cream ball can be as simple as half n half, sugar and vanilla, and the kids will love mixing it themselves, for parties I would suggest making up batches of Alton’s vanilla ice cream and letting the kids add mix-ins to it during the ice cream making process.

Recently I’ve received a lot of questions about what you can make in the Play & Freeze.  The answer is that it is a very versatile ice cream maker.  You can make ice cream, sorbet, sherbet, slushies…

So what’s the difference between sorbet and sherbet, you ask?  Well, despite the face that sorbet is French for sherbet, they are two different desserts.  Sorbet is made with fruit juices or purees and sherbet is made with milk or cream.

Sorbets are very light and icy.  Perfect for cooling down this summer.  Stephanie Jaworski on JoyofBaking.com has a great Strawberry Sorbet recipe.  Although her recipe calls for freezing the sorbet in a stainless steel pan in the freezer, the Play & Freeze works wonderfully for this process.  Using the ice cream ball also eliminates the step of having to place the sorbet in a food processer or blender to “fluff” it.

Try it.  I guarantee you’ll like it!

Buy your Play & Freeze here: MEGA Play & Freeze Ice Cream Ball

For added fun, try the Light Up Ice Cream Ball