Simple ice cream recipes

[fatsatsuma]

I have a basic ice cream maker but hardly ever use it because the only recipes I have are ridiculously complicated. Can anyone point me in the direction of some simple ice cream recipes (using cheats/short cuts if necessary) that will enable me to get more use out of the machine. I enjoy cooking but can't be faffing around with egg yolks too often

Use a combination of whipped cream and condensed milk or maple syrup for the custard. It should be slightly too sweet to taste, freezing reduced the sweet impact. Then add your favourite flavours - vanilla, peppermint with choc drops, chopped strawberries/raspberries/cherries/peaches/bananas/stewed apples; make a cookie dough with almonds chocolate and maple syrup; nutmeg, cinnamon, honeycomb, smarties, coconut.

Thank you, that's really helpful. Can you suggest quantities?

There are lots of non-custard based recipes, using cream or other dairy products. For example, ou can make a delicious kulfi-style mango ice cream;

Get a can of 850g mango slices in syrup, drain syrup and blend fruit to puree. Take about 250ml of the puree, add 235g sugar (ideally unrefined) and process until sugar is dissolved. Chill. When ready, add 250ml evaporated milk and 250ml whipping/double cream. Taste and add a little lemon juice if you'd like it sharper. Churn (or even still freeze) and enjoy!

Or banana; take 4 very ripe bananas (they should have spotty/partly black skins) and blend with 1tbsp lemon juice and 200g sugar (vanilla sugar is nice). Add 250ml milk and process briefly. Cover with clingfilm to minimise browning and chill in fridge. Just before churning add 250ml whipping or double cream. Delicious!

Sorbets are generally really easy too - basically sugar syrup and fruit in various proportions.

We use the condensed milk / whipped cream method.

Whisk 300mL whipping cream to soft peaks.
Whisk in 200g condensed milk
Add flavours.

The one that eludes me is chocolate - anyone got a reliable chocolate ice cream recipe? However I try it it ends up grainy as the chocolate solidifies in tiny granules.

You need to melt the chocolate and cream together and then add syrup/condensed milk and chill before churning.

Ah, thank you. I've tried melting chocolate and syrup together but haven' pre-chilled the mixture. So if I save a bit of my cream and whisk the rest, I can melt it with that

Chocolate is the hardest one to get right. But I'd melt the choc and cream like you do with truffles and then sweeten.