equipment

Don’t you hate it when you have to measure something sticky, like honey or maple syrup, or something thick, like sour cream or yogurt? You always end up trying to scrape it off the measuring cup or spoon and you never feel like you really got the full amount the recipe calls for.

Well, the wonder cup comes to the rescue. Steve gave it to me one Christmas and I’ve used it countless times since. You just push the bottom part down to the measurement you desire, fill the top with whatever you need and then push everything out from the bottom up. It scrapes every little bit of the yogurt, or honey, or whatever you need into your bowl.

They sell these at Amazon in both yellow and white and in 1-cup or 2-cup sizes.

So you know the story where you have a boyfriend who’s really nice, uncomplicated, reliable, and brings you simple joy and happiness but then you meet this other guy who seems to have more of everything – he has “initiative” (he’s started several companies that have failed but he’s trying, any day now), a great body, and promises of a lifetime of amazing adventure, so you dump your simpler boyfriend for this better one, only to realize after a few months that he’s no better at all, really he’s all show and no substance and none of his promises have or will ever be kept, so you go back to your nice first boyfriend who takes you back and everything is good with the world again? You know that story?

Well, it happened to me, except instead of with boyfriends, it happened to me with ice cream makers.

Ok, let’s get one thing straight. There will be several ice cream recipes in this blog. And if you are one of those people (like I used to be) who are completely dumbfounded by the phrase “freeze in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions” at the end of recipe, then here is the solution: buy an ice cream maker. It’s really, really simple. And cheap.

Back to the story. When I first started making ice creams and sorbets, I bought this simple ice cream maker,the Cuisinart ICE-21 Frozen Yogurt-Ice Cream & Sorbet Maker.
It’s the kind that requires that you keep the bowl in the freezer at all times and take it out whenever you want to make ice cream. But one day, I got it in my head that I wanted a better and fancier one. So, I bought this one:

I’m not even giving you the link to this one because I don’t want to encourage you to buy it. It was expensive (almost $300) but it had the one thing my old one didn’t: a compressor. So I didn’t have to keep a bowl in the freezer and I could make a batch of ice cream whenever I wanted. Plus I could make two batches back to back if I wanted since the compressor would keep the bowl cold.

I think you see where this is going. My original, simpler ice cream maker was quiet, fast (ice cream was ready in about 20 minutes), cheap ($50 on Amazon), and made smooth, delicious ice cream and sorbet (speed is important in ice cream making, in order to avoid crystals forming in it, which make it icy). But I threw it away for this monster that ended up being heavy, expensive, really loud, slow (45 minutes or more for ice cream), and almost never made a good batch of ice cream.

So, I went back to Amazon and bought another one of my original ice cream maker and put the other one in a closet, until I give it away.

And as far as saving space in my freezer? Well, the bowl, being a bowl, is empty inside. So, I put things in it to minimize the space wasted. Like, for example, bread cubes I save from leftover homemade bread, which I use to make bread pudding (recipe to come).

So, if you don’t have one, go and buy it at Amazon. And then, make a batch of Malted Milk Ice Cream.