How to make your own ice-cream

WHAT would summer be without ice-cream?

Follow this  recipe and make your own!  It will make  roughly a litre  of ice-cream, so double up if you want more.

Ingredients:

2 cups heavy cream

1 cup full cream milk

2/3 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Optional: Add 1/2 cup cocoa powder for chocolate ice-cream

Mix your base.

It’s easy to make a wide variety of ice cream flavors by starting with a good vanilla ice-cream base. Cream-based ice-cream is a bit icier and lighter than the custard-based version.  To get started:

• Mix the ingredients in a saucepan.
• Heat until the sugar dissolves.
• Place the saucepan over medium high heat and heat the mixture, stirring constantly, until the sugar completely dissolves.
• Chill the mixture in the refrigerator.
• Pour the cream base into a bowl, cover it, and place it in the refrigerator to cool down for an hour or two
• Put a deep baking dish, or bowl made of plastic, stainless steel or something durable in the freezer, and pour your mixture into 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.
• When the ice cream is partially frozen, add your favorite mix-ins to flavor your ice cream. A vanilla base tastes wonderful with just about any type of fruit, candy or nut. Add a cup (more or less to taste) of one or more of the following: Sliced strawberries, chopped cherries, chopped peaches, chopped chocolate bar, shredded toasted coconut, peanut butter, chopped nuts.
• 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.
•  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.

Information taken from  the Wikihow, Keep Simple and davidlebovitz.com websites.