Nostalgia Cookies & Cream Ice Cream Mix

Well, it's been over 10 years, but I'm finally going to pull the Cuisanart Ice-20 out from underneath the cabinet and make some ice cream. Actually, it's been closer to 15 years since I was truly trying to make ice cream. Anyway, what finally got the Ice-20 out of the cabinet? Well, I was in Walmart one morning and walked past several flavors of Nostalgia brand ice cream mix and decided to bring home...

Nostalgia Cookies 'N Cream Ice Cream Mix

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

I don't always remember to say it, usually because I'm busy watching the parade with my kids or eating glorious food with my extended family, but I'm remembering today. Life is short, and we should enjoy shared days like today. I've always said that I was born bitter and jaded, so you would think I would despise the complications that can arise on holidays (and as a kid, yeah, I did sometimes), but as the years pass, I like to think these days have become more special as I realize you can never have today back, so make the most of it so you remember it forever.

Now I really wanted to have this ready BEFORE today. See, I've been trying to get back to making ice cream for a long time now, since it's been over three years since I've posted one of my attempts. I had gathered (most of) the ingredients to create Scoop Adventures Cranberry Ice Cream, plus I've got some white chocolate chips to mix in, but I just started it this morning so I'm not sure I'm going to have the energy to finish it when we get back later today. If I do, I'll add pics, if not, then relax, enjoy some great food, and do you best not to stress. Bury the hatchet, give an extra hug, and give thanks that people care about you!

Cranberry White Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

Update #1: Good news! My Cuisinart ICE-20 still works! The bad news is that I think this recipe is a smidge too big for a 1.5 quart ice cream maker. Anyway, so far so good, but it'll be awhile before this one is scoop ready. We did sample some before packing it up and it is indeed a potent flavor and not in my typical realm of what I pick out. That said, I have to admit this has been fun because it's neat to know this one started as a bag of fresh cranberries. The cinnamon has been tricking my brain into thinking I'm eating some kind of cherry pie filling, so I can wait to see how this one tastes when it's finally frozen solid.... I'm thinking breakfast sundae maybe tomorrow!

Update #2: You know, I still don't know how to make ice cream. Oh sure it looks right enough, but I still think I'm doing something wrong in terms of texture, and that's on top of the fact that this one is too strong for me. It's more of a complimentary ice cream I would eat with something else rather than something I would eat directly. Maybe less cranberries (and maybe some vanilla extract) next time.

I made some ice cream quite long ago....

I made some ice cream quite long ago

why I didnt talk about it, I don't really know.

I was very excited with new techniques to apply,

but after I made it, time just seemed to fly by.

Oh, it was a thing of beauty and should have had a good taste,

but I did not record the formula in all of my haste.

Six months have past, yes this is very true,

and if I held my breath since then I would certainly be blue.

oh all would be lost if not for one thing,

oh I have pictures to help those old memories sing!

It all started with Smuckers Limited edition Apple Cinnamon topping,

if I ate this stuff straight my brain would be hopping.

Next I was hit with an idea so grand and profound,

I jumped for joy and my feet left the ground.

I will mix cocoa with the apples you see,

and then all the children will be full of such glee.

Now the swirl is all set, so what do I do?

I will fill it into a bag and move on to step two!

some cinnamon, some sugar, and some milk go in a bowl,

for you see my dear friends perfection is the goal.

In the Ice-20 it goes to make it ice cold,

and then go in the M&Ms to make sure that it's bold!

both parts are ready to go as you can now see,

i'll mix the tubes together and my creation will be!

behold oh behold the mighty ice cream with no name!

unfortunately the outcome is just such a shame...  

You see while this is different, the combo is flawed,

and though I have tried it, I am simply not awed.

I meant so well and again I will try,

but at the moment this flavor no one would buy.

Dubba's Graham Central Station Ice Cream

My apologies, it's been a few weeks since I've been able to catch up on my sleep. My hectic schedule is keeping me from posting as much as I'd like. Things really are crazy for me right now. I've just spent a fourth day filling out paperwork...oh it's driving me nuts... at least I took a little break out on Sunday to make some ice cream with my daughter. I know, it's not an exciting national review, but I think making ice cream is something everyone should try.

This weekend's attempt was what I believe is called Graham Central Station. I was going to think of a catchy name but my brain just isn't up to it at the moment.

Dubba's Graham Central Station Ice Cream Recipe

2 cups light cream

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 light brown sugar

3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs

1/4 cup 60% cocoa bits

several fudge covered graham crackers

I bought the ingredient for this awhile ago but it's been really hard finding an half hour (hour) to spare to make ice cream. Nothing fancy here. Just cream, sugar, milk and then mix in some graham cracker crumbs (make your own or just buy a box of them to save time). I was surprised at how potent the graham cracker flavor was. We mixed them cold but I really should have heated it so that I would get the graham cracker flavor without the graham cracker grit (oh well, next time).

While my daughter stirred, I tried chipping up some dime size cocoa bits. No, it didn't work, but I was curious as to what would happen. In they go, and then the whole thing went into the Cuisinart Ice-20.

While that mixed, we crushed some fudge covered graham crackers. They are pretty fragile so we wound up with a good bit of graham dust. Once the mix was fairly frozen, I hand blended in the cookie bits ...ok, technically I put them in before turning off the Ice-20, but it was not amused at all.

Overall, it's an interesting, yet gritty flavor. Like I said, I should have heated it, but since heating greatly increases prep time and then I'd have to wait for it to cool, I decided against it. Actually, I had a thought: What is the best way to increase the amount of air in the mix like a commercial company would do? Has anyone tried it? just curious.

As always, I know my "recipes" are very rough, but they are here for general ideas and not exact following.

Ok, I'll get back to more reviews... as soon as I get caught up on sleep, 'til then it's going to be a little rough.

...Whoa, just had a weird idea: graham and peanut butter! Hmmmm, what do you think?

Dubba's Breakfast Ice Cream

Well, I don't really talk about making ice cream very often anymore, in fact, I made some a few weeks ago and never posted it. I meant to, it just kinda got lost on the to-do list. Anyway, here's the story:

I was making dinner ...ok, heating dinner when I decided to throw together a quick batch of ice cream, but I did something different, I took that bold move and actually -heated- my mix before churning it. I think the idea came while I was enjoying a nice oatmeal cookie when I wondered if I could make oatmeal flavored ice cream. I may not be that handy in the kitchen, but I know the flavor of oatmeal won't go into the mix without some help. So I put all of my ingredients together and then heated for quite a while. I think the recipe list went:

1.5 cups of light cream
1 (or 1.5) cups of 2% milk
1 cup of oatmeal
1 cup of light brown sugar
1 tbsp of vanilla
a splash of cinnamon
a dash of nutmeg
a pinch of salt

Now, "thinking ahead" like I always do ...I had absolutely no way to get the oatmeal out of the mix since I don't have one of those cool thin holed strainers (see, I don't even know what it's called)...so I left the oatmeal in! I figured it would settle to the bottom during the overnight chill and then I wouldn't have to worry about it.

Well, I went to mix it up the next day and the oatmeal didn't want to leave, so I said "eh, whatever, it'll add nutritional value or something". So I threw it in the Ice-20 and it came out surprisingly well. I had some fresh, and then I had a bit for breakfast a day or two later. It has a surprisingly nice oatmeal flavor. It came out better than I expected actually, and the oatmeal bits don't bother me at all. It got me wondering what add in would go nice with this flavor, but I still haven't figured it out.

Dubba's DubbaBerry Ice Cream

Yes, we did it, we finally made some ice cream! and on the very last use by date on the light cream too (no worries, it tasted fine plus I just opened it now). I've had this DubbaBerry idea in my head for months now, so it's nice to finally get to it.

Dubba's DubbaBerry Ice Cream Recipe (rev 1)
1.5 cups of light cream
0.5 cups of fat free milk
1/4 sugar
1/2 cup of blueberry spreadable fruit
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla
2 heaping teaspoons of confectioners sugar
(8) small frozen strawberries

Unfortunately I forgot to verify we had regular milk in the fridge, so we had to increase the light cream to make up for the fat free milk. We then mixed in about half a cup of the blueberry spread (it was about half of the 10oz container). Next was a 1/4 cup of regular sugar and the 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla. Now the frozen strawberries were, well, frozen. I didn't plan ahead and defrost them, and I certainly wasn't going to microwave them, so I threw them into the mix whole and still frozen. My daughter stirred for a few minutes which was sufficient to thaw the strawberries enough to cut them up. I went with fairly small pieces.

I put the cut up strawberries back in. We did a bit more stirring and then I did a quick taste test. Needs more sugar. I grabbed a big spoon from the drawer and threw in two big scoops of confectioners sugar. We stirred a bit more and then threw in into the Cuisinart Ice-20. At the bottom of the bowl was a bunch of blueberries from the spread which I thought was kinda cool to see whole blueberries in a fruit spread.

So, we mixed for 20+ minutes and did our taste test. The result: surprisingly good! The blueberry wins up being quiet pleasant and mellow, well the strawberries add a nice fresh tang to the whole thing. It has to be healthy since it's made with fruit! Actually, it tastes like fruit flavored whip cream because of the high light cream content, so it's hard not to like it. Blueberry doesn't get much love in the ice cream world, but after this, I'm thinking maybe it should.

Now, for the record, I never added my "secret" ingredient. I expected not to like the base mixture, so my original plan was to add a raspberry marshmallow swirl. I even refrigerated the raspberry fluff so it wouldn't liquify when I mixed it in. I did try a sample of the ice cream with the fluff, and that made me sure that I should leave dubbaberry as it is.
I know this recipe isn't perfect, but hopefully it's a worthy idea to get you started. You can make the base stronger, or tweak the sugar, or maybe add different berries, but overall, I like it! It's nice to actually have a little success now and then, plus it makes me want to go out in search of other blueberry ice creams.

Dubba's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Ice Cream

Hmmmm, that sounded funnier when I thought of that flavor in the store. Actually, this flavor starts with my eternal quest to learn how to make a swirl! A quality swirl can be a great component to any ice cream, and there must be a secret technique to make one. I think I'm almost there actually. The problem is that the swirl is never tough enough. It just winds up getting mixed into oblivion. The flavor becomes part of the ice cream, rather than a contrast. Contrast is the spice of life... no no, that's not how the saying goes.

Ok, I'm babbling. So, my secret swirl? I know you can't just dump in caramel or butterscotch, it's way too thin. Something like marshmallow is way too thick. I tried watering down the marshmallow but then it's too thin. Yeah, you know where this is going. I 'watered' down the marshmallow with caramel. You know what? It almost worked! I should have chilled it first though. I got the ice cream pretty solid, but when the caramel/marshmallow mix hit it, the swirl (and the mix) melted too much. It tried, it did good first through a couple of swirls, but as I attempted to mix it deeper into the bowl, it just went everywhere.

Sorry, brain keeps resetting. I had the swirl idea in my head when I headed to the store. I also knew I wanted something really chocolaty. So we have a caramel swirl in a rich cocoa flavor, but we need la pièce de résistance: As I attempted to do some 'quick' shopping, it hit me as I walked down the candy aisle. Turtles! Chocolate - Caramel - Pecans. I can handle that! It fits perfectly into my idea. So I went back to the other end of the store to grab some pecans and then I headed home. Since I 'mutated' my caramel swirl with marshmallow, I thought of mutant turtles, or better yet, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. To clarify, I am neither a teenager, nor a Ninja (just in case you were curious)

Dubba's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Ice Cream

1+ Cup of Light Cream

1 Cup of 2% Milk

4 tablespoons of Cocoa

3/4 Cup of confectioners sugar

(about spoonfuls of regular sugar later on)

Swirl is caramel mixed with marshmallow (maybe 1 part caramel to 2 parts marshmallow)

1/3 cup of smushed Pecans

I made the swirl first to verify it would actually work. It mixed together surprisingly well, but if I did it again, I would let it sit in the fridge for an hour or two afterwards. The base chocolate ice cream is just the light cream, 2% milk, cocoa and sugar, nothing fancy. It went into the Ice-20 and then after about five minutes I added in the Pecans. Once the mix looked pretty well chilled, I attempted to add in the swirl.

The result? I really like it actually! The pecans have a nice mild flavor and add a nice crunch that's not too hard, not too soft. This is also the most chocolaty ice cream I've made to date, though it's no Haagen-Dazs. I like the swirl too. Again, not perfect, but before I mixed it in too far, it was providing a nice caramel contrast to the rich chocolate flavor. (Once it fully mixed together, the whole thing became a milk chocolate flavor with hints of caramel).

I've missed making ice cream, and this way a good try to get me going again. I almost wish I had another good idea for tomorrow.

Comparison: Edy's does (or did) make a Nestle Turtles Ice Cream, but they go with a vanilla base instead. What fun is that?

On Second Scoop: Wow, usually my ice creams don't taste as good after they've frozen, but this one has aged really nicely. The flavor is there, but for a change the texture is too. I'll have to figure out what I did differently since this is on the short list of ice creams I consider successes.

Disclaimer: I am claiming no right to TMNT, I am just a fan.

Dubba's Simply Sprinkles Ice Cream

Hard to believe it's been 3 weeks since we've made ice cream. I think for the most part I missed it, but there was a lazy part of me that just wanted to grab a container from the freezer and make more sundaes.

My daughter has started to get the hang of the whole mix-in thing, well, in her own treat loving way. She was very excited when she came up with the idea for Stackerz ice cream. They're like fruit roll-ups, but in various shapes. I was hesitant, but I figured it couldn't hurt to try. As the base was mixing, I did a few sample bites and the Stackerz were just way too chewy. My daughter did wind up making her own Stackerz ice cream, but she did it in her own bowl.

Dubba's Simply Sprinkles Ice Cream Recipe

1.5 Cups of light cream

1.5 Cups of 2% milk

1.5 teaspoons of Vanilla extract

1/2 Cup of Sugar

Lots of sprinkles

1 teaspoon of Gelatin (I will explain)

So, pretty much just mix all the ingredients together, but you are probably wondering ...Gelatin? I was wandering the internet one night and I found this university website talking about how gelatin can help absorb the excess water and give you a nicer texture. Well, after sticking everything in the Ice-20, now I know what Gelatin really does. It looked and tasted fairly normal at first, but then all of a sudden the volume of ice cream started increasing. I thought it might overflow actually. We were left with a very airy concoction. Interesting ...very intestering.

Oh yeah, the sprinkles went in near the end of the freezing process, as did the blue food dye. You know what's really funny? I know it was probably the air and the gelatin, but as the ice cream turned blue, my brain kept telling me it tasted different. Has to be the air ...right? Must be. hehehe, it is, but still, it was weird and messes with your mind.

Dubba's FrostaRutter Ice Cream

Ok, the name is a work in progress, but it's not that I haven't been thinking about it ...I had lots of time thinking about it as I cleaned up the floor, but more on that later.

Ok, so what in the world is FrostaRutter. Awhile back, my daughter insisted we pick up some soy butter. Well, when I did that, I also decided to pick up some almond butter, the nice overpriced all natural kind. Creamy and Roasted to be precise. I've been thinking about what to mix with the almond butter for awhile. I had decided on breaking up these little chocolate alphabet cookies we had since they kinda taste like brownies. At some point it hit me, why not use the leftover chocolate whipped frosting from the cupcakes?

Dubba's FrostaRutter Ice Cream Recipe

1 cup of light cream

1 3/4 cup of 2% milk
1/2 cup almond butter
1/2 dark brown sugar
--1 Tbsp Vanilla
--2 Tbsp Sugar
Frosting

Now, before starting, I went through my peanut butter chocolate chip recipe in the hopes of improving upon the original. I didn't want to overload on the peanut butter flavor, and i definitely didn't want too many chocolate chips. We started by mixing the cream and milk, and then the sugar. I hadn't opened the almond butter yet, so I spent a good 10-15 minutes stirring the oil back into the very solid almond butter. The only good side to this was that when I was done mixing, I was left with a very liquidy mess that stirred very well into the mix.

Now even I added more milk this time in hopes of keep the almond taste tame, it was still pretty strong. This is when 1/2 the vanilla and a smidge more sugar went in. Into the Ice-20 it went. After a bit, it was still strong, so I added the other half of the vanilla. The roasted almond taste is pretty strong, but it's not neccessarily a bad thing, it's different in a good way. I couldn't eat it all the time, but I like it.

Look, I made cream of wheat ice cream!

Ok, it looks a little funny at this point. There was a little accident in the kitchen and the ice cream wound up churning for about twice as long as I usually let it. This wasn't necessarily a bad thing since it had warmed up a bit with all the mixing before hand.

Now, I saved two containers. I made a small container of just almond butter ice cream to see how it would freeze. In the bigger container, I scooped in one side of almond butter, gooped in a giant wad of frosting in the middle, and then filled the other side with almond butter. I really want to make a swirl this time, so I only to a few stirs to mix it all together (not a perfect swirl, but I'm still learning)

not to toot my own horn, but that looks good!

Oh yeah, the floor. Well, as the ice cream was nearing completion, I went to grab my freezer containers from the top shelf. That was fine, but when I went to put the extra containers back, I wound up stretching a little too far and my untucked shirt flopped onto a very full glass of milk that was on the counter. As I came back down, the milk came with me. Oh yeah. I got a nice milk bath as the glass bounced off me and went smashing onto the tile floor. The milk went everywhere as did the glass (though it could have been worse I guess). So, like I said, I had some time to think about the name, a very bad play on FlufferNutter. I have frosting instead of fluff, so that's Frosta, and Rutter is, ummm, iunno, sounded better that FrostaMotter (feel free to chime in with a better name!)

On Second Scoop: Almond Butter Ice Cream: I forgot to mention that I taste tested the Almond butter after I had mixed it back up. It is TERRIBLE. It is so horribly and painfully dry. Well, after a night in the freezer, the AB Ice Cream has gone back to that roasted dryness. Disgusting. Right into the trash.

On Second Scoop: FrostraRutter Ice Cream: Having said that, FrostraRutter is actually still pretty tasty. The whipped sugary goodness goes a long way to save this flavor, not that I've had a whole bowl of it, but it's way better than the plain stuff.

Nutrition: 200/135/2/5+ (before frosting)
Nutrition: 240/140/2/4+ (after frosting, approximately)

Dubba's Galaxy Quest Ice Cream

GRRRRR, I'm angry 'cause I suck

I was really excited about this week's recipe. We have plenty of leftover Halloween candy, so I thought I really had a winner when I thought I could take a crack at making my own Milky Way ice cream. The secret to my confidence? I just bought some chocolate malt the other day, Ovaltine to be specific.

Dubba's Galaxy Quest Ice Cream Recipe

3 cups of fat free half & half

8 tbsp of Ovaltine

3/8 cup of dark brown sugar

1 chopped up (frozen) Milky Way

many squirts of Nesquik

It started off as 2 cups of half & half, and according to the directions, that meant 8 tablespoons of Ovaltine. We then dumped in the dark brown sugar and the milky way bits. We mixed it for a bit, then tried it and the malt flavor was way too strong. More half & half went in, and then into the Ice-20. Still too strong, more half & half goes in and then I started squirting in the Nesquik. Oh, the malt flavor just won't go away. I know it's too late, but I go for more Nesquik (and now I need to buy more). I really really wish I had some fresh caramel for this one.

the final result is unamusing, at least to my palette. The malt is way too powerful. I wanted to go way more mild then this. As I finished, I did start to wonder if some marshmallow would balance it out, but it was too late to mix it in. The milky way chunks are also very tiny and don't add much.

Well, there's going to have to be a sequel to this Galaxy Quest, one with a happy ending and way less Malt. I think a 1 tbsp to 1 cup of liquid might be a good starting spot. If you've never seen the real Galaxy Quest with Tim Allen and a bunch of others, check it out next time it's on TBS or one of the other channels.

On Second Scoop: Sitting in the freezer has actually mellowed the flavor a bit. I still don't like it, but it is more tolerable. It also seems to have frozen better than in the past, which can only be thanks to these funky food storage containers my wife picked up. They are made my Ball.

Dubba's Butterscotch Ice Cream

Dubba's Butterscotch Ice Cream Recipe

1 Cup of Heavy Cream

1.5 Cups of 2% Milk

1/2 Cup of Butterscotch Topping

Nothing fancy, put it all together and throw it the Ice-20. It started with a 1/4 cup of butterscotch but you could barely taste it. It was originally going to have an add-in, but it came out so nice and mild, I just couldn't figure out what would really go well with it, so I gave up.

sorry, no story to go with this one, I went out to mow and forgot all my thoughts.

Nutrition: 244/145/0/2

Dubba's Peppermint Patty Ice Cream

Not sure what came over me, but I suddenly got hit with an idea: York peppermint patties in ice cream! I mentioned in my Andes Ice Cream review that I prefer good old (1940) York peppermint patties. Maybe I just wanted to play with the blender. As you can see, the blender results are quite interesting: the chocolate spreads over the little chunks that are created.

Dubba's Peppermint Patty Ice Cream Recipe

1 Cup of Heavy Cream (finally!)

1.5 Cups of 2% milk

6 Peppermint patties

2.5 tablespoons of cocoa

(5) tablespoons of cane sugar

a few squirts of dark chocolate

I blended the peppermint patties first to see what would happened. They got pretty warm and clumped together, but overall came out good. In a bowl went a cup of heavy cream (so fattening) and a cup of 2% milk. Then we added cocoa and the peppermint patties. Strangely enough, the very cold cream and milk made the peppermint patties very hard, so i had to manually break them all apart, but at least they aren't sticking together anymore (so If you give this recipe a try, watch the chunk temperature).

Almost forgot the sugar, through in some cane sugar (not too much, there's already sugar in the peppermint patties). We were all set, so into the Ice-20 it goes. The high fat content made it solidify very quickly. It also tasted good, but I decided to back off the peppermint flavor a bit by adding another half cup of milk in. To compensate, I threw in the last of the dark chocolate syrup to keep the chocolate/peppermint balance similar to that of the original candy.

Overall, I like it, it's way more pleasant and mellow than that Andes ice cream. I don't want to be overpowered, I just want a cool, pleasant flavor. The only downside is the patty pieces got a bit chewy, but this may be avoidable (again, watch your temps and see what happens).

On Second Scoop: I still really like the flavor. The texture is better than usual, but still feels like the water content is too high (it's more crunchy than smooth)

Nutrition: 206/137/0.5/2
(heavy cream means most of that 137 calories is saturated fat)

Attempting Grape Sherbet

My daughter enjoyed the Hola Fruta! so she thought we should try making our own sherbet this week. We went to Walmart to pick a juice concentrate to mix with the milk for the sherbet. I should know better by now, but she went by color, so we wound up going with Welch's concord grape concentrate = the purple container.

Dubba's Grape Sherbet

The base was originally 1 cup of grape concentrate, 2.5 cups of 2% milk, and 1/2 cup of half & half to make up for the missing fat from the 2% milk. The flavor was very strong, so the list went on: 2 tablespoons of sugar, another cup of 2% (with a bit of half & half), couple more table spoons of sugar. Still strong, but we dumped most of the mix into the Ice-20 anyway (it wouldn't all fit).

The finished product is decent, but still potent. My daughter's first comment was "it's not bad, but it's not good either". Oh man, that's something I would say. As always, her opinion was quickly changed as she dug in. She went with a second dixie cup of taste testing by the time all was said and done. My wife also enjoyed it, definitely different than our past experiments.

On Second Scoop: The flavor has mellowed a bit, basically tastes like a grape popsicle now ...well, a milky grape popsicle anyway. You know, store sherbet often uses skim milk, so maybe I could try taking it down a notch sometime and see what happens (a nice ultra pasteurized 1% milk might work)

A Tale of Two Flavors

I wasn't sure which path to travel this weekend, so I let my daughter decide. I was sure she would go the Dutch Chocolate Mix or the candy bits, but instead, she wanted to take another crack at Marshmallow. So off we go!

Dubba's Fluffernutter Ice Cream

2 cups of half and half

1.5 cups of marshmallow

1/2 teaspoon of vanilla

1/4 cup of peanut butter

tablespoon of sugar (for PB)

So, trying to learn from last week's mistake of too much sugar, I put the half and half in a pan, warmed it up, and mixed in a cup of marshmallow. I started with a bit less but the marshmallow flavor was losing it's potency. I chilled the mix just for a bit, and then threw it in the Ice-20. After about 10 minutes it was obvious that the flavor just wasn't potent enough, so after about 5 more minutes I added another 1/2 cup of marshmallow. It wasn't perfect, but it wasn't bad either.

While that was going on, I experimented with liquifying the peanut butter. So i started with a sample of peanut butter and added in some water, and then some more water. It was working, but the flavor was a bit off, so I added a tablespoon of sugar followed by some more PB (about a 1/4 cup or so in total). I don't have an exact measurement on the water, but we're talking about a basic 1 to 1 ratio for what appeared to be a decent consistancy.

Before we proceed, let me note that you can by liquid PB for your sundaes, and this is what I should have done, but I wanted to see if I could do it myself.

After about 25 minutes, I turned off the Ice-20 and decided to pour in the PB. Now, the ice cream was still fairly loose, and the peanut butter went everyone. Hmmm, guess 1:1 wasn't quiet the right ratio, and so much for making a PB swirl. Oh well, marshmallow and PB kinda mix when you make a Fluffernutter anyway.

Overall, it came out decent. I wish the marshmallow taste was more potent, but on the flip side, the peanut butter comes across much more mild than when I made PB chocolate chip. Unfortunately I'm thinking it wont freeze well since the consistency isn't quite right, still too much sugar I guess.

Now, where does the two flavor part come in? well, I also toyed with adding in some chocolate graham cracker crust. In the samples I made, it was good, but it totally takes you away from the Fluffernutter feel of the whole thing. To be honest, I'm not sure which style I prefer.

Dubba's Bumpy Road Ice Cream

Ok, actually I was taking a shot at making one of my favorite flavors, Rocky Road. Unfortunately, I hit a few 'bumps' along the way, and so I call my creation Bumpy Road instead. Actually, it's good, though I still haven't nailed the right consistency ...probably because I haven't cooked my ice cream yet, I'm still doing the cheater method.

Dubba's Bumpy Road Ice Cream Recipe

2 cups of half and half

2 tablespoons of cocoa

1/2 cup of sugar

1/3 cup of honey roasted peanuts

2/3(?) cup of melted marshmallow

**1/2 cup of 2% milk

**several squirts of Nesquik

I started off with the half & half, cocoa, and sugar. It wasn't tasting as sweet as I had hoped, so i added a few squirts of Nesquik and poured into into the Ice-20. After several minutes I realized the taste was not where I wanted, so several more squirts of Nesquik balanced with a half cup of 2% milk. I have the nagging feeling I've been adding too much sugar, so that's why I didn't head straight for the sugar (of course, Nesquik is just cocoa and sugar, so, not sure why I bothered going that way). While it was spinning, i split the peanuts into halves (when necessary) and prepped the marshmallow. Basically, you mix marshmallow with water and gently heat it in the microwave. I added too much water. I tried compensating with more marshmallow, but quickly ran out. At a while, I added in the peanuts and stopped the ice cream maker. At this point, I attempted to add the marshmallow but it just went everywhere. So I just mixed the whole thing together by hand to spread out the flavor.

Overall, I'm still pleased with the result. It grabs you as a nice chocolate with a smooth marshmallow aftertaste. As always, it gets my daughter's approval, and she's now working on her second serving (no worries, a serving is about 2/3 of a Dixie cup). I do love playing with marshmallow, and I will try it again 'til I get it right.

On Second Scoop: Yeah, I made a giant bowl of frosty again, didn't I? Oh well, live and learn. This batch didn't freeze well at all, but it gave me a thought: Maybe I should be using marshmallow in place of the sugar, not on top of it. So look forward to a marshmallow flavored ice cream with a peanut butter swirl, could be good!

Nutrition: 240/125/0.5/5

Blackberry Ice Cream

Wasn't shooting for anything fancy this week, just wanted to see if I could improve on my last foray into fruit based flavors. I had made a mental note to cut back on the sugar ...and then I forgot. Oh well, that's what too much TV as a kid will do to you.

Dubba's Blackberry Ice Cream

2 cups of (organic) half & half

1/2 container of seedless all natural blackberry spread

1/2 cup regular sugar

1/2 teaspoon of vanilla

1/2 cup of 2% (organic) milk **added later

Pretty straight forward. Add the spread and sugar to the half & half. Blend it together (the spread didn't want to break up). Put it in the Ice-20 and let it rip. Tasting it as it went lead me to believe it was a bit to strong, so i added a bit of 2% milk (probably could have added a whole cup really). As with the red raspberry, it never quite solidified, so i guess it wasn't the high fructose corn syrup. Maybe it's just too much sugar in general.

Now, the funny thing is, if I gave this to someone, I bet you a dollar they would swear it's black raspberry. Came out good and everyone enjoyed it. It was nice not chewing on seeds this time. Still learning, but we definitely have progress.

side note: I went to the other Shaw's on Sunday and discovered they have a GIGANTIC selection of fruits and spreads. I know where I'm going next time I want a fruity flavor.

Nutrition: 152/72/0/3

Dubba's Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip

After last week's low cal adventure, it's time to take things up a notch. For the last few days I've had one thought on my mind: Fluffernutter! While my brother stayed a traditional PB&J man, I diverged and went with the Fluff. The question is: can I make a Fluffernutter ice cream?

Peanut butter ice cream should be straight forward enough. I also read the fluff website and it tell you how to make a nice liquid fluff (as opposed to my earlier experiment). But! does this count as a Fluffernutter? What bread-y like ingredient should I use to finish it off?

So, I surfed around and found this blog post. That's right, local company Brigham's already gave it a whirl, but they cheated! They replaced bread with peanut butter cups. Unfortunately, I don't believe they make this flavor anymore. This discovery made me decide to simplify my plan:

Dubba's Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

2 Cups of non-fat half and half

1/2 Cup of creamy peanut butter

1/2 dark brown sugar

hint (teaspoon) of cocoa

1/2 cup of mini chocolate chips

First up, we mixed the peanut butter with the sugar. We then put in the half & half and mixed it with a blender for a bit. At this point, the mix was fairly warm so we threw it in the fridge. After a bit, into the mixer it went. The flavor was strong as it spun, so I probably should have diluted a bit, but too late now. The chocolate chips were added at the end and spread out well.

Mmmmmm, oh, this is good, I could eat this all day ...if I wanted a heart attack that is. Definitely could have gone with just a quarter cup of chips as well. But seriously, it came out really well, but the peanut butter taste is very strong, tastes very close to regular peanut butter. The peanut butter flavor actually reminds me of Turkey Hill's Chocolate Peanut Butter. I decided to figure how bad the damage was.

Nutrition: 291/111/1/5

Yeah, that's right, apparently I made a flavor as unhealthy as Ben & Jerry. At least the fat is coming from peanuts, which means you get a boatload of protein to go with it. I'm really tempted to take another crack at making this and just scale it down a bit, but let's see where my imagination takes us first.

Dubba's Red Raspberry Ice Cream

You know, there is nothing wrong with simplicity, and by george, non-fat half & half has greatly simplified my early adventures into ice cream making. Why measure half milk and half cream, I can go right for the half & half, and then they go and make it non-fat to boot! Let's see what this week brings us!

Dubba's Red Raspberry Ice Cream

2+ Cups of non-fat half & half

1/2 cup of red raspberry preserves

1/2 cup of regular sugar

1/2 teaspoon of vanilla

So, very straight forward: mixed all the ingredients together, let them chill in the fridge for a bit with the hopes the raspberry flavor would spread out evenly, and then into the Ice-20. The only adjustment I made along the way was to add a bit more half & half (regular kind). I did this in the hopes of mellowing out the cheap raspberry preserves I bought (super Walmart just doesn't have a good selection of jams and jellies). The cheap preserves also had about 3 gazillion seeds in it, but the ice cream is so soft, it's not like you have to bite down and be crunching seeds the whole time.

The other 4 times I've used the ice cream making, you can tell it's down when the motor starts working a bit harder. Well, it just kept chugging this time, the mix never really hit the hard freezing point. At this point, it doesn't matter though, it tastes like a wonderful raspberry milkshake (we do small samples when it first comes out and my daughter was so excited she asked for thirds). So, overall, good experiment, though I would recommend a higher quality raspberry filling.

On Second Scoop: Yeah, I just went back for a second helping (I just had some 3 hours ago). It still hasn't frozen quite right, almost has some kind funky foamy jello-y type consistancy, still pretty tastey though ...ok, technically I'm having trouble stopping myself. Hmmm, I'd say the consistency was from the half & half, but this didn't happen last week. The only thing different is the regular sugar instead of confectionery sugar. I really hope its not the half & half, I'd love to be able to churn out high quality non-fat ice cream. Oh well, we'll just have to see how it tastes tomorrow.

-Update: It has solidified further, though it is/did take its sweet time. The cheap preserves are 25% high fructose corn syrup, maybe that had something to do with it. Live and learn I guess, and hopefully I'll figure out what's up.

Dubba's Cherryberry Ice Cream

I don't believe it, I think I just came up with a flavor people would want! Plus it was an accident. I was attempting to make my Cherry Pie Ice Cream that I was dreaming of, but the flavor just wasn't getting all the way there (probably because I ran out of sugar). So, I decided to add a smidge of strawberry to take off the edge. Well, I added too much, but it worked out for the best. My cherry pie became cherry strawberry ...cherryberry! OK, maybe I should call it Cherryberry Pie, iunno. Let's recap from the beginning.

Dubba's Cherryberry Ice Cream

2 Cups of non-fat half & half

3/4 Cup of sugar

40% of a can of cherry pie filling

1/3 teaspoon of vanilla

1 Ready-to-bake Shortbread crust (broken up, but not to small)

(some) strawberry syrup

So, in a bowl goes the half and half and sugar. Decided to take the edge off by adding a bit of vanilla, but the container was almost empty (so about a 1/3 teaspoon). I then started spooning the cherry pie filling and small cherries into the bowl (avoiding the giant cherries). We then stirred the mixture for a bit. At the end I decide to squish the cherries and mix the whole thing a bit more. Into the Ice-20 the mixture went. After awhile I realized the cherry pie flavor wasn't going to make it, so i added a "small amount" (in other words, I have no idea how much I added) of strawberry syrup. Mixing continued for a bit more. I waited until the last possible minute to added the broken up crust in the hopes of keeping it as crisp as possible.

I took out the mix and it was quite tasty. My daughter wanted the extra shortcake crumbs in her ice cream cup, but I ate the new flavor as is. It really hit the spot, the crust is still crunchy, and I was amazed at how well the non-fat half & half held up. Maybe there is hope for my ice cream making abilities after all!

On Second Scoop: Wow, this held up well in the freezer, the shortbread pieces are still crunchy! 2 interesting points: First, the cherry flavor has spread. Second, the strawberry (syrup) flavor has mellowed. Maybe it's the real cherries versus the fake strawberry flavor, I guess it's one of those things that you learn as you go.

Dubba's Rice Krispy Treat Ice Cream

It's the weekend, time to make some ice cream. For some reason (maybe it was the marshmallow swirl in the last review), I got an idea, rice krispy treats are made with marshmallow, I wonder if I could I make a rice krispy treat ice cream.

Dubba's Rice Krispy Treat Ice Cream

1.5 Cups of whole milk

1 cup of half & half

1/2 cup of confectionary sugar

(still out of regular sugar)

1 teaspoon of vanilla

2 big globs of marshmallow fluff

1(?) cup of frosted rice krispies

Didn't add the rice krispies until almost the end, so they did manage to stay respectably crunchy. They are also the frosted kind, so they tend to last a little bit longer anyway. I also tried to add in an additional glob of marshmallow fluff along the way ...technically it did mix in eventually. Overall, it came out pretty good. Pretty much tastes like a vanilla frosty with rice krispies mixed it. the marshmallow flavor didn't really come through ...hmmm, doing research:

From the marshmallow fluff website: How do you make ice cream topping?
"Place a small quantity of Fluff in a bowl, then slowly add warm water while mixing with a fork. Or, place 4 heaping tablespoons of Fluff and 3 tablespoons of water in a microwave-safe container, then microwave on high for 15 seconds. Remove and stir."

Ahhhh! So that's how you prepare marshmallow fluff. Ok, so, I still think the flavor of marshmallow is the way to go. I also still haven't mastered getting to the right ice cream texture, but, that's what practice is for (gonna take percentage of milk down a bit further next time)