Homemade Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

When my brother, Paul, came to visit for the weekend, we thought we would have some fun experimenting with the ice cream maker I got for Christmas! And with the mild winter we have been having here in NC, why not try now!
I looked up some recipes and decided to try a non-egg one for my first recipe. I doubled the recipe, and it served about 7 full servings (I like to think a serving of ice cream is at least three scoops!). Now, doubling this recipe wasn't the best idea... it started to over flow in the ice cream maker on the last minute! And then I forgot to stir in the chips, but I placed them on top, and I think that worked too! I froze it in a glass dish, and it tasted sooo creamy and milky when done! Next time, I will add some vanilla extract (to give the ice cream more flavor than just milk), or even some mint! Oh! Mint chocolate chip! Yummmm!

Recipe modified from www.ice-cream-recipes.com

Homemade Ice Cream Chocolate Chip Ice Cream Recipe
 Ingredients:
 1 pint milk
1 pint double/heavy cream
3/4 C sugar
5oz plain chocolate (grated)  [mini chocolate chips]
 Directions:
Place the milk and sugar into a saucepan and heat gently, dissolving the sugar. Place the milk to one side to cool and when cold, stir in the cream.
Transfer the complete mixture into an ice cream maker and freeze, following the manufacturer's instructions BUT remember to add the grated chocolate as the ice cream begins to thicken.

Blood Orange Sorbet

It's BLOOD ORANGE season! If you don't know what a blood orange is, I think my brother [Paul] gives a good description as "it's a cross between an orange and a grapefruit". I say "it's like the Sweet'Tart of oranges" with that tart and sweet contrast all in a juicy bite. They have a gorgeous red center, that can some times be surprising, but the taste is always grand!
So when my brother came to visit last weekend, we got the craving to try this Blood Orange Sorbet recipe. I have a new KitchenAid Ice Cream Maker (Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!) and I am just super excited to try out some recipes!

recipe from glutenfreegirl.com
(below is a single recipe. We doubled it to make ours then froze two batches separately.) 

Ingredients:
one and one-half cup granulated sugar
two cups water
one cup blood orange juice
one egg white

Directions:
Beat the egg white in a stand mixer until it is frothy. While you are letting it beat, boil the water and sugar together to make a simple syrup. Let the syrup boil for one minute, then slowly drizzle it into the frothy egg white.
Allow the mixture to stop steaming, cooling off just a bit.
Drizzle in the blood orange juice. Stir until just mixed.
Chill this frothy pink liquid completely in the refrigerator (at least one hour).
Put the chilled liquid in your ice cream maker and let it run for about fifteen to twenty minutes, or until it is forming a thick, frosty consistency. If you take it out at this point, before it’s completely hard, it seems to make the taste all the sharper. Transfer the sorbet into a freezer-safe dish and freeze it to desired hardness. (I like to freeze it overnight.)

My brother, Paul, guest starred in this recipe! He was a great help, especially with squishing ALL the Blood Oranges. One whole orange made about 1/4 C of juice... we need juicier oranges next time!

This is the simple syrup mixture (water and sugar). I think I need a new simple syrup "recipe" because this one was too sweet!

Sorry it is side ways, I am still figuring out my phone blog app! Anyways, this is the egg whites, getting nice and foamy!

This is what it looked like after I added all the simple syrup.

I forgot a picture of when I added the Blood Orange juice, and a picture of it all in the ice cream maker. But here is a picture of the finished Sorbet (after the extra freezing).

As I said before, our experience was a little more sweet than we wanted. I really wanted to taste some of that tart (and that's coming from my huge sweet tooth!). We even added some orange rinds to the mix, just hoping to punch up the flavor, but I think that only helped a little. Next time, I will do a different simple syrup recipe, and will probably add another fruit into the mix. Like... pomegranate! Oh now that sounds yummm!