Do-it-yourself ice cream

• Fruit jam, roasted nuts give basic ice cream added flair

By Sarah Fritschner
Louisville (Ky.) Courier-Journal

Mint, French chocolate, and bourbon pecan are just a few flavors of ice cream that can be made easily at home. Gannett News Service The island way with ice cream Sprinkles, candy bits, chopped nuts — that's all very well. But in the Islands, we have our own ideas about how to dress up ice cream — and about ice-cream flavors. Azuki beans One disappearing tradition: a cooked paste of sweetened azuki beans, like the kind you find inside of some mochi cakes. This was a must on guri guri — Japanese-style sherbet — at one time. Shave ice The only-in-Hawai'i frozen treat: shaved ice mixed with ice cream, for a creamy-crunchy experience. Exotic treats We also like unusual ice cream treats: green tea, mochi, and haupia ice creams, lychee sorbet. Cool moves Tips from ice-cream expert, pastry chef Kimberly Boyce of Campanile in Los Angeles: Make custard 24 hours in advance and keep it in the refrigerator, covered with plastic wrap. The mixed-up fats and proteins need time to relax and meld with the fruit, vanilla and sugar. Ice cream will have a deeper, richer flavor. For fruit ice creams, use only ripe, sweet fruit. Unripe fruit creates, gritty, tasteless ice cream. Always macerate fruit in sugar before using, to draw out juices; and always puree or very finely chop fruit. Large pieces of fruit turn into tasteless "ice bombs." Use a lighter base, one part cream to one part milk, for ice creams with big, bright fruit flavor. Use richer mixture with subtler flavors, such as vanilla. — Los Angeles Times

But for every great flavor you can buy, there are 10 you can custom-make.

You can play with the dairy content, substituting soy milk, or combining whole milk with half-and-half.

You can flavor it with your favorite fruit liqueur, liquor, fruit, nut, chunk or gummy bear. Make your praline with pistachios instead of pecans. Make your chips chocolate coffee beans instead of chocolate.

Whether it's for the Fourth of July, a summer evening, company coming for dinner or a good excuse to clip back the mint patch, churning your own homemade ice cream has gotten easier and sometimes faster than ever.

Pluses and minuses

Every style of ice-cream maker has its advantages and drawbacks:

• Hand-cranked machines require lots of salt and ice — and steady churning for more than half an hour. However, they keep the children occupied.
• Electric makers come in several styles. Many require ice and salt but use a motor to turn the dasher in the ice cream. You need at least six trays of ice and a pound or so of rock salt. But you can walk away from them while they're churning.
• Freezer ice-cream makers use a bucket of cold gel to hold and freeze the custard mixture. Donvier was the first of this type. No ice, no salt, no mess and very little effort, though you need room in the freezer to keep the bucket and you have to stay nearby to churn every few minutes.
• Yields on these machines are limited because the cylinders are less than one quart in size. If you want to make more or additional flavors, you have to wait until the gel freezes again. And because less air is incorporated into the ice cream, there is a little less yield per recipe, and any leftover ice cream freezes too hard.
• Some electric makers combine the freezing gel with automation and make wonderful ice cream, but again, you'll need to refreeze the cylinder before you make another flavor (unless you buy additional cylinders).
• Automatic ice-cream makers or gelato machines need no ice, no salt and little labor. They are the easiest to use but cost hundreds of dollars and are bulky.

Ice-cream tips

Traditionally, ice cream starts with a custard: liquid cooked with an egg yolk-sugar mixture. Adding egg yolks enhances the smooth texture of a custard; cooking the egg yolks first makes them ultra-safe.

The custard should be cooked until it "coats the back of a spoon" — that is, it has thickened slightly and, when you draw your finger down the back of a custard-coated spoon, you leave a trail that isn't immediately filled in by custard. This happens when the custard reaches 175 degrees on a thermometer. Any higher, and the custard will curdle. (If yours curdles, put it through a fine-mesh strainer.)

In virtually any ice-cream recipe, you can alter the liquid to be less or more fatty. That is, you can use whole milk, canned evaporated milk, half-and-half, cream or soy milk nearly interchangeably.

The texture of the final product will change, however. Cream makes a smoother ice cream; milk is a little grainier. Any one of these cooked with egg yolks will be creamier than those without yolks.

Chill any ice-cream mixture in the refrigerator before churning it into ice cream. (You can do this a few hours ahead of time; put the custard in a pitcher and cover with plastic wrap.)

The quality of freshly made homemade ice cream declines rapidly in the freezer. Always store it with plastic wrap pressed right against the surface and don't expect it to hold up more than three days. (It might get grainy or gummy, though it will be safe to eat.)

Fruit jam, roasted nuts give basic ice cream added flair

This is pastry chef Kimberly Boyce's basic vanilla ice cream, over which she serves quick homemade nectarine (or peach) "jam."

Vanilla Ice Cream

• 2 cups cream
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1 vanilla bean, sliced in half and scraped
• 4 egg yolks

Bring the cream, milk, sugar, salt and vanilla bean to a boil in a medium saucepan.

Meanwhile, whisk egg yolks together.

Once the cream mixture has come to a rolling boil, turn off the heat. Take 1 cup of the hot cream mixture and stream it slowly into the yolks, whisking.

Slowly pour the egg-cream mixture back into the saucepan. Whisk. Turn the flame on low and cook until the base thickens slightly, about 2 to 3 minutes. Be careful not to overcook, as the mixture will curdle.

Strain through a fine-mesh strainer and chill for 2 to 3 hours or overnight. Total time: 1 hour, plus 2 to 3 hours chilling time or overnight. Serves Six.

Nectarine Jam

• 1 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup water
• 2 pounds (about 7) nectarines, sliced

Combine the sugar and water until it's the consistency of wet sand. Cook the mixture over high heat to a light golden caramel, about 10 minutes.

Add half the nectarines. Stir the fruit in a figure-eight pattern with a wooden spoon, keeping the heat as high as possible without splattering juice on your arm. It is important to stir quickly. This will prevent splattering and, most important, the fruit will maintain a fresh flavor, not a cooked caramelized taste.

Cook to a jammy consistency, about 7 minutes. Stir the remaining nectarines into the warm jam. Serves: 8-10.

The recipe couldn't be easier — no custard to make and only five ingredients. But because it contains a relatively low-fat liquid and no cooked egg yolks, it turns out a little icier (somewhat grainy) than recipes made with custards or heavy cream. It also melts, very, very quickly.

Mardee Haidin Regan included the recipe in her book, "The Book of Bourbon" (Houghton Mifflin, $25). Regan recommends salted peanuts in this ice cream, which "added an extra dimension" to the flavor. We used toasted, unsalted pecans and they were wonderful. She used a food processor to dissolve the sugar in half-and-half. You can just shake it in a jar, or mix in a blender, if you prefer.

Bourbon Pecan No-cook Ice Cream

• 3 cups half-and-half
• 1/2 cup light brown sugar
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 1/4 cup broken pecan pieces
• 3 tablespoons bourbon

Combine half-and-half and sugars; mix until sugars are dissolved. Stir in the pecan pieces and refrigerate until chilled, about one hour.

Pour the mixture into an ice cream maker and freeze according to manufacturer's directions until moderately set. Stir in the bourbon and continue freezing until the ice cream is firm.

Serve immediately or pack the ice cream into an airtight container, cover tightly with plastic wrap and freeze up to three days.

Makes about one quart.

This recipe from Francois Payard's "Simply Sensational Desserts" (Broadway, $35), was described as "almost too chocolatey" by one chocolate lover. It has a fabulous creamy texture.

Dutch cocoa has been treated with an alkali to neutralize the natural acidity of cocoa powder.

Homemade chocolate ice cream with fresh cherries might make a festive treat for this weekend's Fourth of July celebrations. Gannett News Service

• 1 ounce bittersweet chocolate, chopped
• 2/3 cup alkalized (Dutch) cocoa powder
• 2 cups whole milk
• 5 egg yolks
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 3 1/2 tablespoons honey

Put the chopped chocolate in a medium bowl and set aside.

Put the cocoa in a medium saucepan and gradually whisk in the milk until smooth. Place the pan over the medium heat and bring the mixture to a boil. Remove the pan from the heat and set aside.

Beat egg yolks and sugar until light pale and thick, about three minutes. Drizzle in half the hot milk as you continue to beat. Return the mixture to the pan and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until it thickens and coats the back of a spoon (it should reach 175 degrees on a thermometer).

Remove from heat and pour into bowl containing chopped chocolate and stir until melted. Add honey and stir to blend evenly. Cool, then refrigerate until completely chilled. Freeze as directed by ice cream freezer manufacturer.

Serve immediately or pack the ice cream into an airtight container, cover tightly with plastic wrap and freeze up to three days.

Makes about one quart.

The vanilla ice cream and nectarine jam are from the Los Angeles Times. Other recipes are from the Louisville (Ky.) Courier Journal.