Trial # 1-Basic Vanilla
I finally did it! I ordered a Cuisinart Ice Cream maker. No more will I have to get out the ice and salt to make a fresh batch of delectable dairy (or non-dairy) ambrosia. Now I just have to get one of the freezer bowls out of the freezer, make and chill a batter, and get to churning. As the wise Colonel John "Hannibal" Smith would say, "I love it when a plan comes together." (Hat tip to 
To start with, I better elaborate a bit about the machine. I ordered a factory reconditioned Cuisinart ICE-30BCFR Frozen Yogurt, Ice Cream, and Sorbet maker from the Amazon. There was no small amount of research done by yours truly before I selected this particular machine. By ordering a factory reconditioned model I saved about 50% and sunk that extra savings into an extra freezer bowl. My reasoning behind this would be that I would always have a bowl ready in the freezer to churn at a moments notice. That and a lot of the super smart reviewers said it would be a good idea to have two freezer bowls.
My equipment arrived in a timely matter, and with a bunch of cats surrounding me in discarded shipping boxes, I began the first ice cream machine test run.
The ice cream maker is pretty simple to use. You freeze a liquid filled bowl that comes with the unit for a minimum of eight hours. You want the liquid inside the bowl frozen solid, so I threw it into my chest freezer yesterday. It was a rock when I took it out this afternoon. Before you get the frozen bowl of churntasticness out of the freezer, you must mix up your batter, chill it, set the frozen bowl in the machine, insert the paddle, put on the lid, turn on the machine, pour in the batter, and set a timer for twenty to twenty-five minutes. Sounds easy right? So easy a Generikat can do it!
Whenever I get new kitchen things, I tend to try the most basic, beginner, manufacturer suggested recipe there is for my initial product run. Hello vanilla! I can't think of anything more beginner, simple, or yummy than a bowl of vanilla ice cream. The particular recipe I used was in the ice cream maker's instruction booklet and had a whopping four ingredients, whole milk, sugar, whipping cream, and vanilla extract. Definitely not health food, but I have a bunch of people in my house that will take one for the wellness team.
Before I mixed up the batter I ran out to my chest freezer and collected the freezer bowl. It was frozen solid like it was supposed to be, which I took as an ice cream success omen. As I placed the bowl in my house freezer I got distracted by the Cat-clops that guards the entrance to the frozen cave of convenience food in the house. The little beastie tried to eat my index finger!
I then got out my Kitchen Aid mixing bowl and measured out some milk and sugar. Those two ingredients got mixed together using my whisk attachment for a couple of minutes until the sugar dissolved.
Next I threw in the cream and vanilla extract. I quite literally chucked the cream into the bowl, as my daughter distracted me as I was going to pour it into the batter. It must be noted that I had just mopped all of the floors in my house, so they had to be mess-christened. Sigh.
After the super simple batter was constructed, I got the freezer bowl out of the freezer, and avoiding the Cat-clops, I placed it into the ice cream maker, dropped the churn attachment in, placed the lid on the unit, and turned it on. The machine itself is not very loud at all, and with a smile on my mug, poured the ice cream mix into the churning machine.
Twenty-five minutes later I had the most delectable looking vanilla soft serve. I could have ate it right then and there (Okay, I totally ate a few spoonfuls.), but I instead scooped all of my creation into an air tight container and popped it into the freezer for two hours.
Look at the simple, vanilla delightfulness! If I am honest I am probably going to adorn my ice cream with some hot fudge and peanuts, but it really does taste amazing on its own!
Now I am all excited to get to cracking with my healthy ice cream challenge that I set for myself. I don't really indulge in dairy very often, and sugar is pretty much non existent in my daily dietary regimen. So, I am so totally going to crack that healthy ice cream thing now that I have my super, fancy, amazingly excellent ice cream maker.
Recipes, guaranteed failures, and hopefully a resounding success or two shall be forthcoming!!!
And as always, all of the images in this post were taken on the author's currently vanilla ice cream flavored iPhone.