Dr. Pepper Ice Cream

Full disclosure: I do NOT like Dr. Pepper. No Dr. Pepper soda. No Dr. Pepper Chapstick. No Dr. Pepper t-shirts....nothing. So you may be wondering why in the world I would choose to make this recipe. Well, the short answer is that I love my boys.

To expand on that: my boys both love Dr. Pepper and I wanted to make ice cream and I thought I'd try one they might enjoy. Alas, it was not meant to be. Tyler helped make it but he said he wasn't really a fan of it. I don't think I would have liked it either, if I liked Dr. Pepper, because it wasn't very creamy. I guess if you are ok with a slush then you're ok? But it just wasn't the consistency I would have wanted. That said, take a look at the very easy recipe below and let me know if you can think of any improvements (besides, you know, removing the Dr. Pepper). 

• 3 1/2 cups Dr. Pepper
• 7 oz (1/2 can) sweetened condensed milk
• 1 1/2 cups half and half

Pour all ingredients into your ice cream maker and pack ice and rock salt around it. Following your machine's instructions, turn on the machine and process until you have the right consistency. Freeze until you're ready to serve. 

NOTES: 1 can of soda is about 1 1/2 cups. So this recipe took me 2 1/3 cans of soda. I'm also wondering if flat soda would have worked better? You get the flavor but not the bubbles?

Serves 12

Total Time: About 40 minutes, plus freezing

Recipe from www.melissakaylene.com 

No Churn Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

I fully admit, I had to make this twice. Not because it was so amazing, but because I completely botched it the first time. How did I mess it up, you ask? I trusted the Recipe PTD (powers that be). It said "whip your cream for 10-15 minutes." So I did. I just so happened to walk away from my cream while it was whipping to work with the other ingredients. Learn from my mistake. 

Not only does it not take 15 minutes to whip the cream, it didn't take 10 minutes. I think during my re-do, it took maybe 7-8 minutes? Also, if you turn some beaters on high speed while they are surrounded by liquid, they tend to splash things about a bit. Ok, a lot. So not only did my cream get so whipped it became a hard ball of nastiness, it also splattered everywhere while it got there. Second time around I used a small hand beater (not my big stand mixer) and stayed with the bowl the whole time, not paying attention to the minutes so much, as to the consistency I was looking for. Sooooo much better. 

• 2 cups heavy whipping cream
• 14 oz sweetened condensed milk
• 1/2 tsp peppermint extract
• 5 drops green food coloring
• 1 cup chopped chocolate bits

In a large mixing bowl, whip your heavy whipping cream over high speed for about 8-10 minutes, or until stiff peaks start to form. In another bowl, combine your condensed milk, extract, food coloring, and chocolate bits. 

Pour your whipped cream into your condensed milk mixture and fold everything together until combined. Pour into a 3 quart pan and cover tightly. Place in freezer 6 hours before serving. 

NOTES: This is technically called "mint" chocolate chip ice cream, but you're using peppermint extract. There is a difference. It does NOT taste like store-bought mint chocolate chip. It doesn't taste bad, just know that peppermint and mint are not the same. If I make this again, I will definitely swap the mints to see if it's better. 

Add more food coloring than you think you'll need. If you add what the recipe originally said (3 drops), it's probably going to look a little more like pistachio ice cream. I just eye-balled it and it was still pretty light once it was mixed in with the other milk and frozen. 

Serves 10

Total Time: 10 minutes plus freezing

Recipe from Like Mother, Like Daughter

Orange Soda Sherbet

I know it's a bit cold to make ice cream right now, but.....what am I saying??? It's never too cold for ice cream! That said I am just failing with the homemade ice cream lately. This should have been a simple recipe, but nothing happened when I churned it! It was still just as liquidy as before. It did eventually freeze to a slush state, but it wasn't the best flavor, in my opinion. We won't be making this again. 

• 3 cans (12 oz each) orange soda
• 1 can (14 oz) sweetened condensed milk
• 1 can (8 oz) crushed pineapple, undrained

Refrigerate all ingredients. In a large bowl, combine soda, milk, and pineapple; mix until blended. Fill cylinder of ice cream maker no more than 2/3 full; freeze according to manufacturer's directions. Transfer sherbet to freezer containers, allowing headspace for expansion. Freeze 2-4 hours, or until firm. 

Yields 2 quarts

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Total Time: 40 minutes + freezing

Recipe from Taste of Home

Chocolate Brownie Ice Cream

I actually made this a LOOOOOOONNNGGG time ago and thought I failed. The final product didn't look like it was getting fluffy at all as it was being churned and I assumed it would be a solid brick of chocolate. I don't waste chocolate in my house so I froze it in tupperware....and then just left it. Eventually I was running out of un-used tupperware, along with space in my freezer so I figured I should take it out and either try it or get rid of it. I decided to try it.

OMG it was amazing! Not only was it NOT super hard, it tasted great and was very rich. You only need maybe one or two good scoops of the stuff to satisfy that sweet tooth since it's so dense.

• 1 1/2 cups heavy cream
• 1 1/2 cup whole milk
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup corn syrup
• 5 oz chopped dark chocolate
• 5 large egg yolks
• pinch of salt
• 1 1/2 heaping cups brownie chunks
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts, optional

In a saucepan, whisk about 1/2 cup cream with the cocoa powder to form a smooth paste. Whisk in the remaining cream, milk, sugar, and corn syrup. Heat the pan over medium-high heat to scale (until small bubbles appear around the edges of the milk), stirring occasionally until the sugar has melted. Remove from the heat. 

Place the chopped chocolate in a medium bowl and gently whisk in a few ladle-fulls of the hot milk to melt the chocolate. Whisk until smooth and completely melted. Set aside.

In another bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and salt. Gradually whisk in about half the hot milk mixture to warm the yolks. Pour the egg yolk mixture into the saucepan with the remaining milk and whisk to combine. Whisk in the melted chocolate. Heat the mixture over medium-low heat, stirring constantly until the mixture becomes thick. 

Pour the custard mixture into a gallon-size, ziplock freezer bag and seal. Place the bag in a large bowl of ice and water until cool. At this point, you can process the custard in an ice cream maker, or chill the custard overnight, then process. 

Once the cream is processed, layer about 1/2 of it into the bottom of a container, sprinkle half the brownie chunks and walnuts into the liquid, pressing some of the brownies down into the ice cream. Repeat with the remaining ice cream, brownies, and nuts. Cover and freeze until frozen solid before scooping. 

NOTES: We had a bunch of older brownie mixes sitting around the house so I made brownies from scratch to use in this. You could totally just buy them or get brownie bites to use. Some of the store-bought brownies are a bit firmer and might give you a bit more texture in your finished product. Mine was still really good, but very gooey. 

Serves 1 qt

Total Time: 30 minutes plus chilling and processing

Recipe from www.hungrygirlporvida.com

Brown Sugar Salted Caramel Ice Cream

I don't have a photo of this one, sorry. I took it to a church event and since homemade ice cream comes in such small batches, I didn't want to take any for a picture from from someone who might actually want to eat it.

This is another recipe I tweaked to use what I had on hand. You can see the original recipe in the link at the bottom (with cinnamon and cinnamon chips). I couldn't find cinnamon chips at the store, but saw salted caramel baking chips instead. I thought those sounded like a really good thing to mix with brown sugar. Or anything for that matter. :-) So my modified recipe is below.

• 2 cups heavy cream
• 1 cup whole milk
• 2/3 cup brown sugar
• pinch of kosher salt
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 5 large egg yolks
• 1/2 cup chopped salted caramel chips

In a medium saucepan whisk together the heavy cream, milk, brown sugar and salt. Bring it just to a simmer, stir and then remove from heat. Stir in vanilla. 

In a medium bowl, whisk together the yolks. Stirring constantly, add about 1/2 cup of the hot liquid to the egg yolks. This helps temper them by slowly bringing up the temperature and not cooking the eggs. Whisk in another 1/2 cup of hot liquid. Pour the egg mixture back into the saucepan and cook over medium heat until the mixture is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Scrape mixture into a container and cover. Chill for at least 4 hours in the refrigerator. 

Add the chilled base to the canister of your churner, add the chopped chips and churn according to manufacturers instructions. Freeze until ready to enjoy. 

Makes 1 1/2 pints

Total Time: 15 minutes + 4 hours setting+ ~40 minutes churning+3 hours freezing

Recipe from Sugar Dish Me

Chocolate Mint Oreo Ice Cream

As I mentioned before, I went on a homemade ice cream kick recently. Some were better than others, but this, so far, has been my favorite. So much so that I've already made 3 batches of it (shhh, I promise I won't eat it all myself). I actually took a different recipe and tweaked it to my tastes. The original had Rolos instead of Oreos and vanilla instead of peppermint. You can find the first recipe in the link at the bottom of this page.

I was inspired by a Baskin Robbins flavor they have sometimes. Tyler and I love it and I figured, why not try to recreate it? I think Baskin Robbins makes it a little more colorful by using Oreos with colored cream, but hey, it all tastes the same.

• 3.5 oz mini Oreos, chopped in half
• 2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 cups heavy cream
• 1 cup whole milk
• 1 tsp peppermint extract

Mix the cocoa powder and sugars together in a bowl. Stir with a whisk to remove lumps. Stir in the cream, milk, and vanilla. 

Churn the mixture in an ice cream maker for 20-25 minutes, adding the Oreos during the last 5 minutes. Freeze until solid. 

NOTES: I love the ease of this recipe because there are no eggs involved to mess things up. However, I put the mixture in my churner but it never really got thicker. I'm not sure the purpose of the churning in this one. Usually you can see a marked difference in texture, thickness, and volume when you churn. I doubled the churning time and saw no difference. I was afraid the frozen result would be hard as a rock, but much to my delight, it was still a very soft ice cream. 

You can use regular size Oreos if you want. I used the minis because I was couponing a few weeks ago and had a lot of those little single serve, re-closeable cans of Oreos lying around. Use what you've got, right?

Serves 8-12

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 30 minutes + freezing

Recipe from Living Locurto

Perfectly Smooth Raspberry Ice Cream

Homemade ice cream! Who doesn't love it? Ok, it takes a lot longer than going to the store and grabbing a carton, but you can do whatever you want with it! I had a good time making a few flavors this summer and will probably try a few more soon, maybe some dairy free ones for Doug.

• 12 oz fresh or frozen raspberries, thawed if frozen
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar, divided
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 2 cups whole milk
• 4 large egg yolks

Process the raspberries with 1/4 cup sugar in a blender or food processor until smooth. Push the mixture through a sieve with a rubber spatula into a bowl, pushing down on the solids to squeeze out as much juice as possible. Discard the solids.

Combine the heavy cream, milk, and remaining sugar in a medium saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, until hot but not bubbling. Temper the egg yolks by slowly pouring 1 cup of the hot milk mixture into the egg yolks while whisking constantly. Pour the yolk mixture into the pot while whisking constantly. Continue whisking over medium-high heat until the mixture thickens slightly but before it begins to boil. Pour the mixture through a sieve into another bowl. 

Whisk in the raspberry mixture and transfer it to an airtight container. Cool to room temperature, then chill in the refrigerator until very cold, about 6 hours or overnight. 

Remove the cold mixture from the refrigerator and whisk in the raspberry mixture that settled to the bottom. Transfer to an ice cream maker and freeze and churn according to the manufacturer's instructions. Transfer to an airtight container and freeze till firm, about 6 hours or overnight. If the ice cream is hard, allow it to soften at room temperature for 10-15 minutes before serving.

NOTES: I mixed this with another chocolate chunk recipe I tried. Turned out amazing!

Prep Time: 20 min + churning and freezing

Recipe from The Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook by Dinah Bucholz

Silky Chocolate Chunk Ice Cream

Our church held a homemade ice cream contest over Labor Day weekend. I had never made ice cream on my own (we did as kids, but I really didn't have much to do with the process other than eating the end product) so I was a bit unsure of how it all worked.

I've now made four different types of ice cream. three out of the four were successful. The failure, lemonade ice cream, I blame on the eggs. After much Googling, the egg yolks can be the trickiest part it seems. I'm thinking I cooked them wrong.

My fourth attempt actually didn't use eggs. More about that recipe later (it was AMAZING).

• 2 cups whole milk
• 2 cups heavy cream
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 2 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
• 8 oz bittersweet chocolate, melted and cooled
• 5 large egg yolks
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup coarsely chopped bittersweet chocolate

Combine milk, heavy cream, sugar and cocoa powder in a medium saucepan and cook, stirring frequently, until hot but not simmering. Whisk the melted chocolate into the egg yolks (it will be thick and difficult to whisk). Temper the egg yolk mixture by slowly pouring 1 cup of the hot milk mixture into the yolks while whisking vigorously. Pour the yolk mixture into the saucepan and cook, stirring constantly, until very hot but not simmering. Do not boil.

Pour the mixture through a sieve. Stir in the vanilla extract. Cover the surface with plastic wrap to prevent a skin from forming; chill until completely cold. Freeze and churn in your ice cream maker following the manufacturer's instructions. Toward the end of the churning time add the chopped chocolate. Transfer to an airtight container and freeze until firm, 6 hours or overnight. If the ice cream is hard, allow it to soften at room temperature for 10-15 minutes before serving.

NOTES: I combine this recipe with a raspberry recipe. It was fantastic. I made both full recipes and then just put half of each in the churner at a time. It churned, got moved to a storage container, and then I churned the rest.

Total Time: 20 minutes + churning and freezing

Recipe from The Unoffical Harry Potter Cookbook by Dinah Bucholz