Make ice cream

“The bowl spins around a little plastic paddle and in 20 minutes you have something that’s very close to ice cream, though you should put it in the freezer for a few more hours to harden up. And then it’s really ice cream–any kind of ice cream you want, unbound by the limited imagination of Big Ice Cream or whatever change you can rustle up from the couch cushions. The thing I’ve learned about ice cream so far is that it’s a combination of a bunch of things that don’t want to bind together, that you have to convince water and fat and air to cohere through the careful application of heat and proteins and sugars. There are a million ideas about what the right way to do this is, and what the best ratios are, and what the best ingredients are. I didn’t know that ice cream, so peaceful and happy, had so much tension at its core.”

“The biggest advice I have for anyone attempting to make their own ice cream at home and/or follow a new recipe in general is to read through all of the directions before starting. The first time I tried to make the ice cream, I didn’t realize that the bowl had to be in the freezer for 24 hours before beginning the recipe. This set me back an entire day. However, once I solved that issue, the rest was pretty simple. I had to mix all of my ingredients (which included heavy cream, milk, peanut butter, sugar, vanilla, and peanut butter cups) together using an electric mixer. From there, I simply poured the mixture into the ice cream maker, flipped the switch on, and then left it for 25 minutes.”