read, cook, eat July 2009: 5-minute ice cream

A Quebec strawberry, plucked from the freezer and about to be made into ice cream.

This month’s 11th ave recipe is five-minute ice cream. As in, start now and in five minutes you could be eating your own ice cream. If soft-serve consistency doesn’t do it for you, spend five minutes now, stick it in the freezer and use a scoop in about an hour. Truth. All thanks be to the Instructables website for the recipe, via Lifehacker, both spectacular uses of time for people with interests in food, DIY stuff, social media and other web pursuits.

Berries and yogurt into the food processor with sugar and vanilla.

But back to the ice cream. Get your food processor* on the counter. Take a frozen bag of berries from the freezer and pour the contents in along with 2/3 cup of cream or yogurt (I’ve tried 2 and 3 per cent fat with good success), 1/2 cup of sugar and a tsp. of vanilla. Hit the power button and smush until it’s the consistency of ice cream and either serve

A scoop of the mixed-berry five-minute ice cream after about an hour in the freezer.

immediately or put in a container in the freezer to harden a bit. Can be stored in the freezer for up to a week, but seriously, it won’t last that long.

Regarding serving size, I make up a half recipe and that does the two of us for a couple of snacks each.

Great thing about this is that it’s not only easy and quick, but it sidesteps the preservatives and salt in commercial ice cream, which leave me either very thirsty or too jittery to sleep.

Now then. A few words about my flavour experimentation over the past two weeks and rankings out of 10. All these were made with plain yogurt.

• Raspberry was 10 out of 10, according to The Boyfriend. Bright ruby red and tangy. Do not eat while wearing white.
• Mixed berries was 7 out of 10, losing points only because of the damned woody blackberry seeds. But even more beautiful deep red colour.
• Banana mango (I cut up and froze a banana and bought a bag of Europe’s Best frozen mango chunks). This was only a 6 out of 10 because the mango is flavorless. Maybe a squidge of lime or lemon juice would have perked it up. Definitelly will try banana again.
• Chocolate cherry (I pitted and froze a crate of cherries I bought at Costco and which were about to go gross; mixed these with a handful of semisweet Chipits) was 8 out of 10. Spectacular mix of tart cherry and mellow chocolate, but lost a point because of operator error: the chocolate chips were not pulverized enough. Lost another point because it has caffeine, which means it cannot be eaten by me after say five in the afternoon.
• Cherry Halls: The worst so far, but of course we still hoovered it, was what I will call Halls cherry cough drop (I was feeling frisky so tossed a few leaves from my balcony-garden
  

  Mint from my balcony garden: Beware the cough-drop effect when adding mint to your berry ice-cream.

  peppermint plant into a tumble of strawberries and cherries). I give it only 5 out of 10 because the combination of tart berry and surprisingly strong mint made me think first of toothpaste and then a Halls cough drop. The Boyfriend disagrees, giving this batch a 10 out of 10.

Next on the list to attempt: straight banana, banana chocolate, banana peanut butter. I’m open to suggestion. Lemme know what you invent.

Denise Duguay

* Might work in a blender if you make a half a batch, but it might be too thick to completely pulverize the berries.