Maple Walnut Ice Cream: No maker needed!

For my birthday this past October, the Sweet Lovin' Man got me an ice cream maker.  It's been in a box taunting me for the past four months. "Maaaandi, I'm going to be overwhelming...  You can't dooo this.  It's going take forever and you're going to need weird, expensive ingredients- wooooooo!"  (While most ice cream makers have the voice of Kristen Bell mine has the voice of Jacob Marley. Go figure).

So much to the chagrin of the Ipod (my Los Angeles roommate), I told myself I'd wait to break it out and go through the painstaking process in Chicago with my Sweet Lovin' Man.

We agreed on a Maple Walnut flavor because a)  I put the smack down on his Maple Bacon fantasy and b) it reminds me of Stewart's back home in upstate New York. They had fantastic ice cream. We'd go after church (before the Tuna Muffinlettes started).

So here's the scoop (corny pun intended):  Ugh... I screwed up? Aaaaaand we didn't even end up using the maker. HA! Whoops.

Did you know that ice cream makers are the Snoopy Snowcone Machine of the adult world? You plug it in, you set the "plastic thing" inside & it twirls. A cuisinart is more high & mighty! Hmph!

I found the (below) Maple Walnut recipe online at Epicurious.com. It looked easy, I had the ingredients & then tragedy struck: The part where it says "Chill covered until cold at least 3 hours." I did that in a nice shiny bowl. Check!

"Freeze custard in ice cream maker til soft frozen, then, with motor running, stir in the nuts." For someone who's never used an ice cream maker before, those are some crappy directions.

HERE'S THE RIGHT WAY:

You put your FREEZER BOWL in the freezer for at least six hours. The freezer bowl is like a heavy duty ice pack made of aluminum (or something). Hard & shiny on the outside like a bowl, ooey gooey liquid freeze on the inside. You make-a the custard. You chill the custard in a regular big shiny bowl. One the custard has chilled,  you put it into the ice cream maker's FREEZER BOWL. You return the FREEZER BOWL to the freezer until the custard is "soft frozen." Then you put the FREEZER BOWL in the ice cream maker. Turn on the Snoopy Snowcone Machine & watch the cheap piece of plastic rotate & "freeze" the "soft frozen" custard into ice cream.

HERE'S WHAT WE DID (and by 'We' I mean 'I' because the SLM was playing Wii Poker):

We made-a the custard. We chilled the custard in a big shiny bowl & stuck it in the freezer. Then when it was soft frozen, we threw it into the ice cream maker without a frozen solid FREEZER BOWL. Turned on the Snoopy Snowcone Machine & watched our soft frozen ice cream turn to milkshake material. And what the heckfire, at this point, I threw in the nuts. Then I threw the FREEZER BOWL with the custard into the freezer.

THE BETTER WAY:  Just letting the custard freeze in a big shiny bowl. Sheesh!

Je ne comprends pas. I'm not sure what the point of an ice cream machine is really... Then again, my Snoopy Snowcone Machine lasted about a week.

Anyway, make this recipe. Don't worry about Grade B.  We used a dark amber Grade A & it was ridiculously good. Freeze it in a kitchen bowl. Eat it out of the kitchen bowl. Share. Don't share. I won't blame you.

Thankfully, the next day we  had beautifully perfect, delicious ice cream.  TO. DIE. FOR. And the MC ain't done had no sugar in a loooong time so it was especially amaaaaazing.

DIVINE MAPLE WALNUT ICE CREAM:

• 1 cup Grade B maple syrup*

• 2 cups heavy cream
• 1 cup whole milk
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 large eggs
• 1/3 cup walnuts, toasted and chopped

• Special equipment: an ice-cream maker

• *available at some specialty foods shops or ordered from The Baker's Catalogue (800-827-6836) or Dakin Farm (800-993-2546). 
• 
  
• Boil syrup in a 2-quart heavy saucepan over moderately high heat until reduced to 3/4 cup, 5 to 10 minutes. Stir in cream, milk, and salt and bring to a boil over moderate heat.  
• 
  
• Whisk eggs in a large bowl, then add hot cream in a slow stream, whisking. Transfer to saucepan and cook over moderately low heat, stirring constantly, until slightly thickened and an instant-read thermometer registers 170°F, 1 to 2 minutes (do not let boil).
• 
  
• Pour custard through a fine sieve into a clean metal bowl, then cool, stirring occasionally. Chill, covered, until cold, at least 3 hours.
• 
  
• Freeze custard in ice-cream maker until soft-frozen, then, with motor running, add nuts. Continue churning ice cream until frozen, then transfer to an airtight container and put in freezer to harden.

Hugs & LOTSA calories,

MandiCrocker