Here on the manor, we like to eat and we eat a lot of different foods. We disagree about spinach (I like it but he doesn't) but we're in agreement on almost everything else. I've long looked forward to "retiring" and moving towards a more traditional country kitchen.
Several years ago, we agreed we needed to be more aware of the additives in our food. We didn't toss out half our pantry, but we've gradually moved toward more whole foods and more homemade foods. At the top of our list was ice cream.
Funny thing about ice cream. If you purchase it, you may be tempted to eat the entire carton to satisfy that craving for smooth texture and sweet taste. With homemade ice cream, we find a very small portion completely satisfies our craving for a dessert or a snack. That's a good thing because the recipe we finally found that we both love is not exactly diet-friendly.
Full disclosure - we found this recipe on YouTube from Laura in the Kitchen. It's so simple it's probably outlawed by the food channels. You need four cups of heavy cream, fourteen ounces of sweetened condensed milk, and vanilla extract to taste. That's it. Nothing fancy and no cooking.
I whip some air and vanilla into the sweetened condensed milk and set it aside. Then the heavy cream and a bit more vanilla goes into the mixing bowl and I whip that until very stiff peaks form. I have a Kitchen Aid Artisan mixer and I use that for just about everything.
Once I have the SCM and whipped cream ready, I mix strawberries, peaches, or whatever I want to add into the SCM. Then I slowly fold that into the whipped cream. Once everything is sufficiently blended, the mixture gets poured into a large plastic container, or maybe several small freezer containers, and it goes into the freezer for at least eight hours. Right now, we have Reese cup ice cream. I took five Reese cups and chopped them up in the food processor until no big pieces remained and added it to the ice cream. You can add cocoa powder for chocolate ice cream. Just add the cocoa to the sweetened condensed milk and whip it until thoroughly blended before folding the SCM into the whipped cream.
Yes, that's a bit of sugar and fat, but ten bites and you feel like you've eaten an entire gallon of store-bought. It's that rich and delicious. Not only do we eat less of it, but we also don't want it every day even though we know it's in the freezer. And speaking of the freezer, you do need to set this out about ten minutes before you dish out portions. With this, frozen means it's frozen hard.
So is it that the homemade has no additives to trick our brain into thinking we need more, or is it something else? We think it's the former, not the latter. He and I look at the no-fat craze the country went on and we know that was the beginning of the obesity epidemic. Now we have the Keto diet which is all about the fats and people are losing weight. Go figure.
We have a busy day planned and I need to get ready. The sun will be up soon and it will be time to walk away from the computer for a while. Today is once again about apples, and this time, it may include selecting a dwarf tree. We'll have to see.
The Lady of Holly Tree Manor
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