Items10The creator’s order
  1. 1Frozen custardFrozen custardFrench-style custard ice cream This is the one to master first. Egg yolks cooked gently into milk and cream are powerful emulsifiers, so the churned result is rich, smooth and creamy in a way an eggless base cannot match. US rules treat it as its own thing: once the yolk solids reach 1.4 percent,…0
  2. 2Ice creamIce creamPhiladelphia-style ice cream No eggs and no cooking beyond warming the sugar until it dissolves: just cream, milk, sugar and flavor. That makes it the quickest base here and the best showcase for delicate flavors, since nothing stands between you and fresh vanilla, peak strawberries or mint leaves…0
  3. 3GelatoGelatoGelato tastes more intense than ice cream for a plain reason: it carries less fat, and cold fat mutes flavor. Lower fat also means it takes in less air during churning, so it eats dense and silky. The catch for home cooks is serving temperature. Gelato is meant to be eaten a good 10 to 20 degrees…0
  4. 4SorbetSorbetSorbet is where an ice cream maker earns its keep in late summer. It is dairy-free, so the fruit carries everything, and that means it demands your very best fruit: dead-ripe peaches, a glut of raspberries, Meyer lemons. Sugar does more than sweeten here. It keeps the water from freezing into hard…0
  5. 5Sherbet (frozen dessert)Sherbet (frozen dessert)Sherbet sits between sorbet and ice cream: mostly fruit, with just enough dairy to round it off. In the US the legal line is narrow, between 1 and 2 percent milkfat, so the dairy is there for softness rather than richness. At home you can build it around fresh orange or lime juice and a little…0
  6. 6Frozen yogurtFrozen yogurtReal frozen yogurt tastes of yogurt, which is more than most froyo shops can say. The well-known home version, from David Lebovitz's book The Perfect Scoop, is little more than whole-milk Greek yogurt and sugar, chilled and churned in about 25 minutes. Because there are so few ingredients, the…0
  7. 7GranitaGranitaGranita needs no machine, only a shallow pan, a fork and a few trips to the freezer to scrape the ice into flakes. That coarse, light texture is the point: cleaner on the tongue than ice cream and grainier than sorbet. In Sicily it is a breakfast, eaten with a soft brioche for dipping, and…0
  8. 8KulfiKulfiKulfi is not churned at all, and that is exactly why it belongs here. Its density comes from patience: whole milk simmered low and stirred often until it has reduced by more than half, then sweetened, flavored with cardamom, saffron or pistachio, and frozen in molds. The long reduction gives a…0
  9. 9BastaniBastaniBastani sonnati Persian saffron ice cream is the best argument for owning a machine if you live far from an Iranian grocery. The base is a custard of cream, milk, yolks and sugar, colored gold with bloomed saffron and perfumed with rosewater, with chopped pistachios stirred in before freezing.…0
  10. 10DondurmaDondurmaDondurma is the stretchy Turkish ice cream, and it is the most ambitious project here. Its chewy pull comes from salep, a precious powder made from orchid bulbs, and its light cedar-like taste from mastic, a brittle resin from trees on the Greek island of Chios. Churn it in the machine until the…0