Ice Cream!

todd is obsessed w/all things ginger: ginger snaps, ginger beer, crystallized ginger, etc.

so when haagen daz came out w/ginger ice cream, i thot he was going to have a heart attack.

the only problem was, it's not readily available. it's been out of stock for months, and no one in a 50 mile radius of us expects to get it in anytime soon.

so after several wks of waiting for haagen daz to send some our way, i decided to attempt to make my own.

(i have a lot of time on my hands)

it was easier than i thot it'd be, but it took a long time cuz i don't have an ice cream machine.

if you have the time, it's not too shabby. the ice cream won't be as smooth as the kind made w/an ice cream machine, but it'll make you girlfriend of the year...

homemade ginger ice cream
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/8 cup granulated sugar
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsps ground ginger (or however much you want to your taste)
1 tblsp crystallized ginger, chopped

mix the milk and sugars til the sugars dissolve, and then mix in everything else

pour liquid into a 1 quart air-tight container, cover, and stick in the freezer for 40 mins.

take out of freezer and using a spatula, mix ice cream to remove any ice crystals that form along the container edge

then using a hand mixer, mix the ice cream til it's smooth

return ice cream to freezer for 40 mins.

repeat mixing and freezing every 40 mins for about 2.5 hours.

let ice cream freeze solid (about 3-5 hours)

make sure to use a container that's more wide than deep so the ice cream can freeze faster. stainless steel, ceramic, or glass work better than plastic.

and if you're way cooler than me and have your own ice cream machine (you suck, btw), stick the liquid into the machine and it should be done in 30 mins.