First batch

I got an ice cream maker, scoop, and recipe book* for my birthday from my mom. I had tried out this maker with my roommate this summer with excellent results, so I was confident that this one would work for me. The only problem is that my recipe book makes 2 quart recipes and my maker isn't big enough. I can't do the kind of math to reduce the recipes by 25%, so in the future, I may have to halve all the recipes.

So, I chose to make fig ice cream (recipe follows). Recently, I had the most amazing fig gelato at this place in Seattle. It was light pink in color, creamy, and tasted like fresh figs. This recipe called for dried figs (which was convenient, because fresh figs are not in season around here) which needed to be softened by cooking in water for a while. After cooking, the recipe said to blend until smooth. I followed all the steps but the blended figs were quite unappetizing. Unlike fresh figs, which are purply-peachy and pretty on the inside, dried figs are brown. Which meant, I realized after blending in the milk, cream, and sugar, the fig mix smelled and tasted more like prunes.

I have extra mix because I didn't realize ahead of time that my mixer is smaller than the recipe yield. I think I'm going to buy a bunch of mini disposable tupperware containers and try to give away the fig/prune ice cream to friends. Nothing wrong with dessert that makes you regular!

After about 20 minutes of mixing, the mix started to look more like ice cream, but was still brown. And tasted like prunes. After the recommended 25 minutes of mixing, I put the frozen mixture in the freezer. Hopefully it will magically turn into the fantastic gelato of my memory.**

I will post pictures in the future--it occurred to me well into the process that I should be documenting this visually. From now on!

Note: I used 2% instead of whole milk in an attempt to make a reduced-calorie dessert. In the future, I won't try this again. The calories saved don't make up for the runnier product. I'd rather have less ice cream and have a richer experience.

*I chose this book because of the number of recipes compared to other ice cream recipe books. Plus, the clincher was the recipe for peanut butter sauce. Yum. After trying this one recipe, though, I might recommend a book with pictures (to avoid any chocolate/prune color disappointment) and one with more careful testing and copyediting. (This recipe had a typo, corrected for you here, and lack of direction--cook until soft? How long? What temperature?)

**It did not.

Fig Ice Cream (from The Complete Idiot's Guide to Homemade Ice Cream)
12 oz. dried figs
2 cups water
3/4 cup table sugar
3 cups milk
1 1/2 cups whipping cream

1. Place figs and water in heavy sauce pan and cook until very soft. Drain figs and save one cup of the cooking water.

2. Place soft figs in a blender. Add sugar and saved cooking water. Blend until smooth. You may have to add a little milk.

3. In a mixing bowl add fig mixture, remaining milk, whipping cream, and mix until smooth.

4. Cool mixture to 40degrees F in your refrigerator.

5. Transfer cold mixture to the ice cream freezer and follow manufacturer's guidelines.