That's right; I'm hopping on the summer blogging bandwagon. This is just the first of what I hope will be many, many, posts about ice cream, frozen yogurt and sorbet. 


I reclaimed an old ice cream machine from the give-away pile and got to work. 
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If there is one flavor I love almost more than any other, it's coffee. So naturally my first ice cream would be of the coffee variety. And I say variety because I added a little crunch in the form of almonds and chocolate chips. 
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A lot goes into making ice cream. At least, it was a lot more than I thought it was. First I brewed a small, strong dose of french press coffee since I don't have an espresso machine. Then I threw that in a sauce pan with some whole milk and heavy cream and let it boil. Then I added the secret ingredient. Or at least, the ingredient I was surprised to see in so many recipes: egg yolks.  
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I was trying to make ice cream, not frozen custard! But it is my understanding that the egg yolks are what make a good ice cream especially creamy, so I met myself in the middle and added four yolks. (Some recipes call for up to 12...or some other ridiculous number.) First I added a little bit of the hot liquid to the yolks, then added that mixture back to the original. 
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You then simmer this liquid down until it ambiguously 'coats the back of the spoon.' Or reaches a certain temperature. I am still without a thermometer, so I had to take the less accurate route. After reaching what I hoped was the coating stage, I cooled the liquid for two hours. 
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Then the magic happened. The magic that is facilitated by the world's tackiest kitchen appliance. I poured in my not-quite-cold-enough liquid and waited for the pre-frozen metal cylinder to go to work. Now, the box says that you only need to crank the handle once every 2-3 minutes and that in 20 minutes you'll have ice cream. Let's just say that I am impatient, probably spun it more than I should have, and it took closer to 40. 
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Once it reached a decent frozenness, I stirred my mixings into it, loaded it into a tupperware and stuck it in the freezer. 
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The next day I had ice cream. Hard as a rock ice cream. I think the water content in the coffee changed the consistency of the ice cream, because it was less creamy and more crystalline. I also may not have boiled it down enough. But once it softens a bit, it's just as tasty and satisfying as ice cream should be. So, summer, bring it on.