Below is a list of the best Food processor ice cream voted by readers and compiled and edited by our team, let’s find out
This story is part Tips for the houseCNET’s collection of handy tips for getting the most out of your home, inside and out.
Don’t underestimate the power of your culinary robot. In the midst of the summer heat, this kitchen appliance can help keep you cool by producing delicious homemade ice cream – no real ice cream machine obligatory.
Let’s be honest: an ice cream maker is a one trick pony. And with limited space in our kitchens, machines for the dessert genre aren’t always a top priority. Some of the most ice cream obsessed among us (um) think it should be the main appliance in the kitchen, but most people will like to find another use for the equipment you already have in your cupboards. A food processor is nothing if not versatile, but we can’t think of a nobler use for your trusty food processor than homemade ice cream.
Tyler Lizenby/CNET
Any food processor with a capacity of at least eight cups will do; CNET rated the Cuisinart FP-8SVP as the best value food processor of the ones we tried, and it will definitely work for mixing your ice cream base.
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Real ice cream, not “beautiful cream”
You can find tons of food processor “ice cream” recipes made from frozen bananas instead of the classic cream, eggs and sugar base (often called nice cream in reference to its healthy vegan status and perhaps also its ease of preparation). It’s actually really good, but sometimes we want the real thing. Sweet-cold-creamy obsessive fellow Jeni Britton Bauer, founder of Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams, shares a quick and easy way to make traditional ice cream at home without an ice cream maker.
You can use Bauer’s basic vanilla ice cream recipe as a starting point: leave out the vanilla bean and make the base in step two, then follow the steps it outlines here:
How to Make Ice Cream in Your Food Processor
1. Follow the basic recipe you want to make custard. Don’t include any mixes yet, just cream, eggs and sugar – and any ingredients that are there purely for flavor (see note below for more info).
2. Pour the custard into a Ziploc bag and squeeze out every last drop of air. Seal it tightly and place it flat in the freezer. Leave to freeze completely.
3. Crumble the frozen custard into your food processor and process until completely smooth. At this point, you can incorporate any additional blends or flavorings you wish.
4. Scrape the ice cream out of your storage container (which can be a reusable ice cream carton or just a regular loaf pan) and put it back in the freezer. That’s it!
The texture of this food processor ice cream is a little thinner, a bit like ice cream. But you can make it any flavor you like and incorporate all sorts of blends, from chopped peanut butter cups to fresh berries.
To note: If you want more infused flavor, you can soak things like fresh mint, coarsely ground espresso beans, or whole cinnamon sticks in the crema for a few hours or overnight before straining and starting. the recipe described above. You can also mix in vanilla extract, cocoa powder, and other flavoring agents, but you don’t want the mixes going in until the base has been frozen and blitzed or they’ll be completely pulverized.
The importance of air
Why can’t you just make the custard, freeze it, and eat it right away? Blowing air into your ice cream while it freezes is essential if you want to avoid large ice crystals and not end up with a sad, solid block. You want something creamy and luscious that coats your tongue, not icy, crunchy “ice cream.” But if you brew your ice cream after custard is frozen, which is best.
If you don’t have a food processor yet, you probably want one right now, huh? It’s definitely more versatile than an ice cream maker.
Don’t stop at vanilla
There are hundreds of ice cream recipes online that you can try using this food processor method. Remember to follow the steps above and avoid any solid mixing during initial mixing. Something tells us it’s going to be the best summer ever.
And if you do have the real estate counter of an ice cream maker, we tested Ninja’s Creami ice cream machine and gave it a big thumbs up.
If you’re looking for more delicious dishes to try this summer, check out our alternative Shirley’s Dirty Recipesour guide to whipped lemonade and this fun way to make a chocolate cake in five minutes.
