This ice cream recipe uses all organic ingredients, but the real star is the raw milk. If you don't currently use raw milk, I highly recommend it. You can't beat the freshness, flavor, and nutrient value in raw milk. Need help finding a quality source? Check here. This recipe does technically pasteurize the milk but the quality of the starting ingredients is what really matters. Concerned about killing all those natural probiotics? You can always add powdered probiotics to the cooled custard right before freezing.
This particular recipe is for my personal favorite - Mint Chocolate Chip ice cream. It can be easily adapted to a variety of flavors though. I also use an ice cream machine (don't forget to put the freezer bowl in the freezer the night before!), but if you don't have one, keep reading for machine-less directions below.
Raw Milk Ice Cream Recipe
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Ingredients:
1 ½ cups organic raw milk
1 ½ cups organic raw cream (I removed the cream from the top of ~4 quarts of whole milk)
1 whole vanilla bean or 1 tablespoon organic real vanilla extract (or make your own extract)
1 teaspoon organic peppermint extract (or make your own extract)
3 large organic egg yolks
2 large organic whole eggs
¾ organic cane sugar (I plan to try something like stevia, honey, or maple syrup next time)
½ organic spinach juice for color (see how to make this below)
1 cup organic chocolate chips
Directions:
In a medium sized sauce pan, combine the milk and cream. Slice the vanilla bean open the long way, scrape out the inside, and add both seeds and pod to the pan. Add peppermint extract to the mix and stir. Slowly bring the mixture to a low boil over medium heat, then reduce to low heat and simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
In a medium mixing bowl, combine the eggs, yolks, and sugar. Beat on medium speed for 2 minutes until the mixture is pale yellow and smooth and set aside.
To make spinach juice for green color:
In a small sauce pan, put a hefty handful of spinach leaves with a few tablespoons of water. Cover and cook on medium heat until leaves are wilted. Smash leaves with a spatula or use an immersion blender to extract the juice. Remove the chunks and add the liquid to the hot milk and cream mixture. I promise, you can't even taste the spinach!
You can do this with strawberries or beets for pink; add turmeric or saffron directly for yellow, blueberries for purple, carrots for orange, or red cabbage leaves for blue.
When the milk mixture is done cooking, remove the vanilla pod. Slowly mix 1 cup of the hot milk and cream into the sugar/egg mixture until fully combined. Add this to the remaining hot milk and cream mixture in the saucepan and return to medium low heat. Stir constantly until the mixture has combined and is thick enough to coat a spoon. Remove from heat. Transfer to a bowl and cover with plastic wrap or parchment paper directly on the custard to prevent a skin from forming. Let cool completely (I chill mine in the fridge overnight once it's reached room temperature). Once cooled, you can add your extra probiotics if you'd like to.
If you have an ice cream machine, like this inexpensive one, turn the machine on and pour the custard into the pre-chilled freezer bowl. Mix for approximately 30 minutes until thickened. Add the chocolate chips, frozen fruit, or other chunky bits, mix for a few more minutes, then transfer the entire concoction to a freezer safe dish. You can either eat it at this point or freeze it further for a few more hours for a more solid ice cream.
Makes about 5 cups total. I won't tell you the calories because this is not the time for that! This is the time to fully enjoy REAL homemade ice cream. The taste is so much better than store bought, as has none of the chemicals or preservatives.
To freeze the custard without a machine:
Pre-chill a large metal baking dish or pan. The bigger the better. Add the custard mix to the pan and put it in the freezer for 45 minutes to an hour. Remove the pan from the freezer and scrape the outer edges of the frozen ice cream, mixing it really well with the non-frozen center and top custard. Return to freezer. Repeat the scraping and mixing every 30 minutes until it's completely frozen (around 3 hours total).
Variations:
There are lots of options with this. Leave out the peppermint, spinach juice, and chocolate chips for straight up premium Vanilla ice cream. Or use a different extract, like lemon, or almond. Add the chocolate chips to the vanilla milk mixture (stir more frequently so the chocolate doesn't stick to the bottom and burn) for Chocolate ice cream. Add ¼ cup of hot espresso to the vanilla milk mixture for coffee ice cream. Add espresso AND chocolate chips to the milk mixture (stir more frequently so the chocolate doesn't stick to the bottom and burn) for mocha espresso ice cream. Make the vanilla custard with strawberry or beet juice for pink color and add pre-frozen halved or quartered strawberry or cherry chunks to the custard right before freezing for strawberry or cherry vanilla ice cream. I'd like to experiment with using stevia or honey instead of sugar next time. Another variation I plan to try is using real, grade B maple syrup instead of sugar and adding pecans or walnuts to the custard before freezing. Sounds divine doesn't it?
What is your favorite ice cream flavor?
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