Just how pricey does it get to make your own ice cream?

[GooseberryPatch]

I really fancy spending the summer faffing about in the kitchen whipping up delicious ice cream with the fruit from my newly acquired allotment...

But looking at recipes online, and given the cost of eggs/cream, does it end up being really expensive? Lots of recipes seem to need 4 or 6 egg yolks, and when you add in the cream/milk it starts to add up.

It's a bit like when I make a cake, and realise I've spent double the cost of a shop-bought cake on the ingredients.

I really want to though, so please tell me it's worth it?

But it's tastier, right? So

I think it is far tastier, especially the simple flavours like plain old vanilla. But I admit that vanilla ice cream is probably one of the most expensive puddings you can make. For cheaper way of using up your fruit, maybe you could try sorbets?

You don’t need egg yolks for most recipes.
cream, sugar & milk are the base. Or sorbets are mainly fruit and sugar.

I have an ice cream maker. It’s worth it.

Gelato is nicer and uses milk rather than cream and fewer eggs

Oh but it’ll cost a fortune in vanilla extract unless you’re careful. It’s worth buying vanilla pods and making your own vanilla extract - all you need is vanilla pods and alcohol (I use rum). Much better and cheaper than anything you buy!

If you have the fruit, it’s just cream and sugar
https://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/meals-and-courses/desserts/blackcurrant-ice-cream?amp

We make a Nigella no churn grown up coffee ice cream which needs espresso, alcohol (we use rum), double cream and condensed milk.... It is delicious and worth every penny!

Yes it's dearer, same as cakes.
But you are not ingesting all the chemicals used to make the commercial products.
It's a balancing act. Delicious crap is OK now & again, but I won't feed it to my DC & especially DGC.

And, yes it’s delicious. Black currants, red currants, raspberries are all good, and they pretty much need cream and sugar anyway.

I’ve just checked the price of Haagen Dasz (the most comparable to homemade ingredients wise) and it’s more than £5 a tub, so getting on for £11 a litre. My litre of vanilla ice cream using double cream, six egg yolks and a vanilla pod comes in at just over £8 so homemade is cheaper.

I've got an ice cream machine. It makes wonderful ice cream. The base for mine is double cream, milk and sugar. Then I add things such as cocoa powder to make a brilliant chocolate ice cream, or fruit etc

I make LOADS of ice cream in the summer (and autumn, and winter, and spring...)

Your basic fruit ice creams (principally strawberry) don't need an egg base though there are recipes that do use it. If you have home-grown fruits it's very economical- this is in my opinion the greatest thing to do with your allotment fruit because it will be hands down MUCH better than any ice cream you buy.

If you're making a vanilla / raspberry ripple / cinnamon / marsala (a personal fave) you basically just make a custard and freeze it. I find you can often get away with less egg yolks than they say (a 6 egg yolk recipe is fine with 4), and often I mix-and-match a splash more milk vs cream depending on what's in the fridge.

Home made ice cream is extremely forgiving for how much of the ingredients you put in - I very rarely follow a recipe or weigh the ingredients now, and I have never made an ice cream everyone doesn't love and come back for more with.

Not sure if you've got an ice cream maker yet - I have a pretty cheap one where you put the bowl in the freezer and I have a spare bowl as (in case you hadn't gathered) I make a tonne of ice cream, and the bowls take ages to re-freeze. You can get fancy ones that you don't need to pre-freeze so it doesn't take up freezer space, but if this is your first season prob a 'normal' freeze-the-bowl one will be your best bet.

I 100% recommend making ice cream, it's brilliant!

You can use the condensed milk and double cream recipe and put fruit through or make a sauce to ripple through it. I did it last Summer and it was lovely.

Yellow label cream!

We always pick up several tubs of cream on the best before date for ice cream (when it’s reduced)

cream is good for a while after that date so it’s fine

Does anyone have a basic fruit/cream/sugar recipe that is interchangeable for different fruits? My mum had one in cups measures when I was a kid and that’s the kind of simple recipe I’d like to find again.

The Delia black currant one above works for other fruits. I think it’s worth making the sugar syrup.

My basic recipe for a litre of ice cream is 300ml cream, 300 ml milk heated. 3 eggs and 100g sugar whisked until pale. Gradually combine. Heat until custard thickens. Chill thoroughly and churn. Cream £1.15 and milk about 60p. 3 eggs about 65p and 100g sugar about 10p, so about £2.50 a litre. I make vanilla essence as described up thread.

Haagen Dazs etc is about £10 a litre full price from Sainsburys. Home made ice cream is lush and while all that fat and sugar isn't something you should be having very often, it is what it is. A treat, not an everyday dessert. And a couple of scoops contain less fat and sugar than a bar of chocolate, so I think it's fine - moderation and all that.

Apologies if my maths is wrong - I think it's right!

Yes, I've done that with strawberries and plan to do another batch this weekend with some frozen 'fruits of the forest' I found hiding in the bottom of the freezer. My husbands favourite is a version of rum and raisin - I soak sultanas in whisky (had some he didn't like the flavour of for drinking) for at least 2 weeks and stirred a generous portion through the base mix....... You don't need much but it is fantastic!

Here’s the one I use for strawberries- no eggs. I personally prefer gelato as it’s less cream more milk (still no eggs). Have copied the lemon gelato recipe but you could adapt it for other fruits

Get an ice cream maker. It’ll change your life.

I strongly recommend getting the Ben and Jerry’s recipe book, too - if only for the French Vanilla recipe.

Any recommendations for the machine itself?

I make a simple vanilla ice cream without a machine

Its simply egg, double cream, vanilla and sugar https://fussfreeflavours.com/no-churn-vanilla-ice-cream/ plenty of other recipes on her blog website
they aren't expensive to make
https://itsnotcomplicatedrecipes.com/quick-and-easy-lemon-ice-cream/ this is delicious and Ive been asked a few times to repeat making this by guests

I think this is the one I have. It is one of the cheaper models where you don’t have to freeze the bowl. Had it for a couple of summers now and it works well.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Buffalo-1-5Ltr-245X402X281mm-Professional-Freezer/dp/B00P7IBAIQ?ref_=ast_sto_dp&th=1&psc=1

Before that I had a Lakeland machine where you have to put the bowl in the freezer overnight before you could make the ice cream. It’s perfectly adequate but now I can make ice cream without clearing out the freezer to fit the bowl in first.

Thanks to the oysters who shared fruit cream and sugar recipes. I think I need to play around a bit and given that it’s Indian mango season might start with mango ice cream this weekend 😋

Oh this has made for very pleasing reading! Seems it's more doable than I thought.

I don't have a machine but was considering getting a cheap one. Although there seems to be a lot of no-churn recipes about so maybe it isn't necessary.

Good to hear I don't necessarily need as many egg yolks as the recipes suggest. What do you all do with the leftover egg whites? Meringue?

The best cream to use is whipping cream. If you go to Morrisons they often have 2 litre bottles (like the ones you get milk in) for a quid. Its where they have the cream cakes