If there’s one thing I’ve found in making homemade ice cream, it’s that making it at home won’t save you money over store-bought. In fact, you’ll likely spend more on the quality ingredients for good ice cream than you will on a mid- or upper-tier brand at the grocery store. Therefore, the only reason to make you own is to control for quality and/or create flavors you wouldn’t normally find in your grocer’s freezer.

Our first adventure was a plain vanilla just to try out the ice cream maker. We thought simple was better for the first go round. It was pretty decent, though the base should have been colder before it went into the freezing bowl.

Our second effort was the Nutella ice cream which turned out perfectly. We brought in fresh snow to help get the base as cold as possible without freezing before putting it into the freezer bowl of the ice cream maker. It made a huge difference in how much air was incorporated into the ice cream. It was so smooth and delicious.

I’m taking a long break before our third attempt. While it’s nice to use the smaller cups that are automatically portion-controlled to half a cup, it’s still too tempting to have ice cream ready in the freezer at all times. Besides, now Sebastian has specific requests for unique flavors.

First, I have to find a good blueberry ice cream recipe. He loves blueberries. I would try to create it myself, but when I went searching to see if there was any reason people don’t sell blueberry ice cream (out of fear it might not be as delicious as one imagines), I found a recipe that sounds just fine.

I am going to try my hand at creating a recipe for the next flavor on our list: chili-chocolate ice cream. Sebastian loves the chili bar from Lindt’s, and he requested I develop something with that flavor. This could prove to be interesting.

The final flavor request by Sebastian is something with chocolate and peanut butter. I found this recipe that I thought I might try first. This is such a common flavor blend that I just assume someone out there has mastered it, and probably done a better job than I could.

One might begin to wonder when I get a say in choosing ice cream flavors. Well, eventually. And when that day comes, here are my inspiration recipes: cannoli, banana pudding, toasted coconut, cinnamon, and apple cider.

I look forward to anything with a banana flavor. I can’t eat bananas straight because I have some kind of sensitivity to them.* My throat starts itching like crazy if I eat a piece of plain banana. I can have things made with bananas without issue. I can even eat banana slices that are covered in something like chocolate or ice cream. It actually sucks because I love banana flavor. I wish I could enjoy them plain, but I either have to bake, mix, or dip them if I want to enjoy it.

*Oddly, I’ve only met one other person with this same sensitivity.

Related posts:

1. Banana Pudding
2. Heaven, in a Bowl
3. My Food Blog is Sad