If you can still get them, Panasonic did one which you can stick in the freezer and ran on batteries - Only cost about £30 and good when you don't want to worry about remembering to freeze it.
I'm often making ice cream - my favourite recipe is Heston Blumenthal's vanilla ice cream, that is like no other. It makes an excellent base for all kinds of other flavours too. It also doesn't use any cream, yet has a superb texture due to the addition of milk powder:
- 1 pint whole milk
- 120g caster sugar
- 6 egg yolks
- 50g milk powder
- 10 coffee beans
- 6 vanilla pods (Say whaaaaa.. you don't have to use 6, 2-3 really nice ones will do, and you can just use 1 if you like, but the more the merrier!)
Split the vanilla pods, remove the seeds and place in a large mixing bowl. Keep the empty pods, slice into 2-3 pieces, and put into a large cassarole/saucepan.
Add the milk, milk powder and coffee beans into the saucepan. Slowly bring the pan to a simmer, watching the milk doesn't catch. Simmer for 5 minutes, then remove from the heat and leave to infuse for 20mins.
Whilst it's infusing, add the egg yolks and sugar to the vanilla seeds and beat with a whisk until it's nicely increased in volume and white-ish in colour. You really want an electric whisk for this unless you have really good forearms!
Get ready 2 bowls - one big enough to hold a litre or so of the ice cream mixture, and another bigger mixing bowl big enough to fit that. Stick some ice in the large bowl so it can cool the outside of the smaller one and place the smaller bowl in it ready to use later.
After the 20mins is up, put the milk mixture back on to the boil and get ready with your egg mixture. Put the milk back on to simmer and once ready, remove from the heat and immediately pour the whole mixture onto the whisked eggs, whilst whisking - being careful not to get it everywhere! Once mixed, pour it back into the saucepan/casserole, and slowly heat, stirring
constantly until it's thick enough to coat the back of a spoon (you probably realise by now, this mix is just a really nice custard!)
Once ready, pour it through a sieve into the bowl you have ready within the larger bowl, and keep stirring until it has cooled. Once cooled, either refridgerate overnight or put straight into the ice cream maker.
You can adapt this recipe easily to make all kinds of ice cream by infusing ingredients during the initial step. I've swaped in a teaspoon of dried lavender buds for the coffee beans which work well, and you could also add raisins and a tablespoon of rum at the end to make a nice rum and raisin ice cream - which also has the advantage of staying nice and soft in the freezer!
Lastly - one tip if you don't have an ice cream maker, if you can get hold of dry ice or liquid nitrogen, you'll be able to produce incredible ice cream with just a mixer!