This Could Change Everything…

 I bought an ice cream maker.  Did you catch that?  I am the proud owner of an ice cream making machine.  A very high-rated, and Martha Stewart approved ice cream making Goddess.  This.  Could.  Change.   EVERYTHING.  My life (give or take 300 lbs) might never be the same.

I was shopping off of a bridal registry in the housewares section of a department store.  I was trying to decide between an immersion blender and a Pyrex set.  It’s likely that I was mumbling to myself about soups and sauces when the sales associate approached me.  She happened to be a part-time personal chef partial to the immersion blender.  Learning this led to a conversation about soup which somehow led to me explaining garlic scapes to her. 

Before long she was furiously feeling my hand.  She stopped abruptly asking, “no ring?”  I thought, None.  I’m not married, not engaged, not seeing anyone special, still waiting for the guy from the farmer’s market to call me with dinner, but I probably just sourly said, “no.”  She tried to assure me that it was fine. I looked young, I had time.  I explained to her that the lack of a partner was one thing but the lack of kitchen supplies was torturous. 

It’s completely unjust that I have to shop for friends and family buying flour sifters, cupcake devices, and espresso machines that they may never use.  One person, who I’ve never known to so much as boil water to make tea, registered for a dutch oven.  I’m pretty sure she doesn’t even know what a dutch oven is for!  They just happen to come in very appealing colors. I explained this to the saleswoman.  She agreed that I was the one who needed an ice cream maker, a juicer, and a kitchen aid not them.  She called me trouble, “You’re a lot of trouble and you’ll be even more trouble when you do get engaged.”  She then suggested I move, throw myself a housewarming party, and register for housewares.

I decided she was right.  Not about the party, but about my deserving an ice cream maker.  That was afterall, the point that she must have been trying to make.  This sort of buying is something I started doing a while back.  A crock pot, a french press, nice muffin tins, things like that.  Purchasing an ice cream maker didn’t even seem that impulsive.  I’ve been researching them since last summer when I became obsessed with the idea of lavender ice cream.  Living in New York City it isn’t even difficult to find lavender ice cream.  In fact, I know exactlywhere to acquire it, but that isn’t the point.  The point is that thinking of lavender ice cream (with honey) made me think of honeyed ricotta ice cream which led to my envisioning goat’s milk ice cream with sour cherries which made me dream of buttermilk sorbets which all meant that it was necessary I buy an ice cream maker.

So here I was, conveniently in the housewares’s department during a big sale with a basketful of kitchen supplies for other people.  Surely, I should at least look.  The ice cream maker that I’d been lusting after was 50% off.  Done.

 My first order of business was ricotta ice cream that would be loosely based on the ricotta ice cream served at one of my favorite, favorite, favorite local restaurants.  They put it in a little terracotta pot (charm factor) and cover the top with some sort of honeyed almond slices.  Before I got a chance to attempt and recreate, I was reading a food website that was having an ice cream recipe contest and I thought that maybe my creation should be more original.  With ricotta still on the brain, I decided to create “cannoli” ice cream.      

I always forget how much I love ricotta.  It’s really the perfect blend of creamy milkiness and tangy cheese.  And it can be dressed salty or sweet.  It was risky creating my own recipe the first time using my ice cream maker, but I did a little research and felt that my ratios were relatively accurate.  This recipe is great because it required no heating or cooking during the massive heat wave we were having, and it’s cold and delicious.  The cream is sweet and indulgent while the subtle lemon going throughout makes it sublimely refreshing. 

  

I’ll add a recipe for lavender ice cream soon.  Currently, the beautiful bunch of straight-from-the-farm-lavender that my roommate picked up for me is in a different state than both me and the ice cream maker but when we all unite I’m sure that pure bliss will ensue.  I also promise you recipes for spicy pumpkin ice cream (with brittle) and lusciously rich eggnog ice cream. In the meantime, buy yourself an ice cream maker and get to work on this.  

  

 

 

 

   

 

Cannoli Ice Cream

 

3 cups of good quality whole milk ricotta
1 cup of heavy cream
1/2 cup of whole milk

1/2 cup of sugar
1 1/2 cups of confectioner’s sugar
1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
zest of 1/2 lemon
1 cup of chopped high quality dark chocolate 

store bought cannoli shells for serving (optional)

In a blender or food processor blend ricotta, cream, and milk.   Add remaining ingredients, except for chocolate, and blend until well mixed.  Pour into ice cream maker and freeze according to manufacturer’s instructions.  Add in chocolate during the last five minutes of  churning; after ice cream is already thick.

 **The cinnamon and vanilla tend to turn the ice cream brown so it appears chocolate.  If this bothers you, or if you’d rather it actuallyu look like cannoli filling you can use vanilla infused white sugar instead of extract.  You may also reduce the amount of cinnamon to 1/4 of a teaspoon.