between2worlds

I am lactose intolerant. This sucks! I love all kinds of dairy things. But sooooooo many of them don't love me. I'm not allergic - an allergy to milk is a whole 'nother thing. For whatever reason, my body quit producing enough of the enzyme necessary to break down milk sugar (lactose).

I'm lucky in that I can still eat most cheeses (the longer it has been aged the better), any yogurt (except Breyer's), and keifur (a yogurt drink) from the middle eastern market (not the short-cut supermarket kind). I can even have milk gravies as long as the milk has been scalded sufficiently.

The common thread here is that I can digest it as long as something has been done to pre-process the milk sugar. Unfortunately, pastuerization doesn't quite do enough of the pre-processing so milk and (especially) ice cream is just not something I can have "off the shelf".

It's an evil thing to have happen, but it's a reality for me - so what the heck, right? There isn't much you can do about it except eat those YUCKY Lactaid tablets if you want a glass of milk or a dish of ice cream.

Now I LOVE ice cream. And life without ice cream is just wrong. It took some recipe swapping and testing but I finally came up with a recipe for ice cream that uses a COOKED base that I can eat that tastes like goot ice cream.

Cooked Ice Cream Base

2 cups sugar
2 envelopes Knox unflavored gelatin
3 pints light cream
6 eggs, well beaten
1 pint heavy cream
3 tablespoons vanilla extract

Mix the sugar and gelatin in a heavy saucepan. Whisk the light cream, 1 pint at a time until the sugar and the gelatin are well stirred in. Cook stirring constantly over medium heat until the sugar and gelatin are completely dissolved and the mixture is ALMOST boiling**

**Milk is scalded by heating it to 180°F. Visually, at sea level, this is the point at which tiny bubbles begin to form - ALMOST boiling. Because water boils at a lower temperature at higher altitudes, this visual clue may be inaccurate.

Now comes the fiddley part. You need to take 1 cup of the hot liquid and add it to the 6 beaten eggs in a mixing bowl. You are doing this to raise the temperature of the eggs so they can be put into the main mixture. The easiest way to do this is with a mixer - turn the mixer on high and drizzle the hot liquid in a thin stream in S-L-O-W-L-Y. If you just dump it in there the eggs will cook like egg drop soup - not what you want in your ice cream. You will probably notice the mixture start to thicken uniformly while you mix in the hot liquid - that's OK.

As soon as you have the 1 C. of hot liquid added to the eggs, pour it all into the mixture that's still cooking on the stove. Whisking while you add the heated eggs in will help it get all mixed together with no mishaps. Stir for 2 minutes more but DO NOT allow the mixture to boil! Turn off the heat and add the heavy cream and vanilla.

Put it in your ice cream maker (4-5 qt size) and follow the instructions for the maker. (I have an electric one that requires ice and salt).

Makes about 3 quarts of ice cream.