Because I have a big girl job that yields big girl pay, I sometimes allow myself seemingly guilt free shopping. I will choose an item I have had my eye on and buy it. They are never big purchases, but little ones that bring me a tad amount of joy or an upgrade to something that I’ve had, but of better quality. This time it was an ice cream maker. I eyed and coveted the hand crank/electric ones that Tractor Supply had on their shelves, but I couldn’t justify spending $100. Nor did I know what to do with at least 6 quarts of ice cream.

Instead of going big for homemade, I went smaller. A 4 quart machine. I loved custard as a kid, but dairy as an adult is a perpetual battle with hormonal acne and crying gut aches. I’ve been doing fantastically well drinking raw milk from a local dairy farm and wanted to give ice cream a try. Plus… I have a lot of duck eggs that need homes at the end of each week. On top of that, I am trying to be less dependent on table sugar (while I did use a recipe that had a little cane sugar in it) and used monk fruit as the bulk sweetener (a 4:1 ratio).

I used vanilla as a base. It turned out lovely. I followed the instructions provided along with making up my own base. My taste buds are happy. It is soooo delicious and decadent. The only thing I would change is less sugar next time and a little more patience. I was adding ice and salt every 5 minutes instead of the recommended 10 minutes. Woohoo!

Happy Taste-buds!