make batter ice cream

I LOVE cake batter ice cream from coldstone, maggie moos, marble slab etc. I pretty much think it was the best invention ever. I know its not for everyone, but that's why ice cream comes in SO many flavors! I, however, was super excited to find out that its really simple to make cake batter ice cream at home. I couldn't leave it there though, my VERY favorite batter to eat has always been Betty or Duncan blue berry muffin batter. So I made it into ice cream, and it was everything I hoped for :) I, in fact, liked the blue berry muffin batter ice cream better than the cake batter I made, but in hindsight I think I added too much cake batter to my ice cream.


I have a pretty basic Cuisinart ice cream maker, and I made the gourmet vanilla bean base and then flavored it. There are tons of ice cream recipes out there, but I suggest at least starting with the recipe that comes with your ice cream maker so the volumes are right.

I know I've kind of droned on about my my vanilla purchases, but buying the vanilla bean paste might have been the best culinary decision I ever made. You can add one tablespoon of your ice cream base instead of a vanilla bean (and at $8 a bottle vs. $12 a bean its a really good deal) and when you heat it on the stove those seeds get so fragrant its intoxicating. Not much compares to the smell of vanilla and cream simmering together.

And now on to batter ice creams... it really is as simple as buying your favorite box mix and adding 2/3 to 1 cup of dry mix to your ice cream :) I told you it was easy. I guess I always thought it was some secret chemical and flavor mix, but its not. I actually mixed the dry powder with milk to make it really smooth before adding it to my ice cream base, and then let it do its thing in the ice cream maker.

Next time I think I'll try frozen yogurt.