WANT HOMEMADE ICE CREAM BUT DON'T HAVE AN ICE CREAM MACHINE? Here's how...

WANT HOMEMADE ICE CREAM BUT DON'T HAVE AN ICE CREAM MACHINE? No worries, you don't need one! Here's how....

For many years, especially due to having restaurants I had the world's best Ice Cream Machine, a Lussino Brand machine that makes the best ice cream, gelato, sorbet, granita ever! Easiest to use and never had a problem with it. Even when I sold the restaurants I always kept the Lussino and used it at home all the time. We still talk about it and miss it. But it's an expensive piece of machinery, extremely heavy and most people just don't want to spend so much for a machine they'll only use sporadically and I understand and even though I've tried many others over the years like Cuisinart, KitchenAid, etc with the bowl you have to freeze before using or the old fashioned ones that take rock salt, but we never liked them. I still make ice cream and while I don't have kitchen equipment anymore since we've been travelling, I make do with a very easy procedure with minimal ingredients that anyone can use. Here's what you will need:

NO-MACHINE HOMEMADE ICE CREAM.-

2 cups heavy cream, cold
1 Tbl Vanilla
1 can condensed milk
Fresh Fruit: 2 cups fruit puree

NOTE: Fresh Fruit, peeled and roughly chopped (should be about 2 cups, 3-4 large fruits)
Canned Fruit: Drain all the liquid but reserve. Reserve 3-4 pieces of fruit and chop in large pieces. Puree the rest in blender or with immersion blender so you have at least 2 cups puree.

How to make:  If using fresh fruit, place in sauce pan over medium heat and stir for a couple of minutes until soft. Allow to cool for a minute or two.
If using canned fruit, reserve 2-4 pieces of fruit and place the rest in a blender and puree or put in glass of immersion blender and puree. Chop the pieces of fruit you reserved, hold them.

Add heavy cream to bowl of a mixer or if using immersion blender use the whisk to beat until it begins to thicken, add the vanilla, keep whisking to the stiff peak stage.

Add the can of condensed milk to the beaten cream and integrate well. Stir in fruit puree and pieces of fruit and combine.

Pour the mixture into a loaf pan and freeze at least 3 hours or overnight.

For best results: If the ice cream is frozen solid, remove it from the freezer with about 15-30 minutes advance of enjoying it so it can get smooth and creamy for best flavor.

NOTE: You can use almost any fruit to make this ice cream using this procedure. For Coffee Ice Cream I've used Espresso Powder and simply added it to the whipped cream on the final stages of whipping. Use more than you think you'll need to get a strong coffee flavor. I have also used Homemade Jam in lieu of fruit. If you don't like condensed milk you can always use cane sugar, just remember to try and avoid water based liquids since these will create ice crystals and it will affect the smoothness of the ice cream.

I've also used the traditional egg based base recipe prevalent in most shops and while this gives great results I would only use heavy cream, Espresso Powder and Cane Sugar in the restaurant and was known for my ice cream desserts so the moral of the story is: Amazing quality ingredients and simple is best!

There you go, a nice simple recipe to get great ice cream at home anytime at all!