stuart james beall

I’ve made another tweak to this peppermint ice cream recipe. Measurements are for a Whynter ice cream machine, with a 2 quart bucket.

This is my son’s favorite, so far. On my first attempt, I used about 8 ounces of hard peppermint candy. That was too much, and it was frustrating trying to hammer out the hard candy, watching chunks flying in every direction available. I next tried a garlic press, to crush about 12 typical candy canes, which yielded 5 ounces.

Bruce Stettler (my father-in-law) had the best idea yet. He had my son break and unwrap a dozen candy canes, put them into a ziplock bag, and crush them with a wooden rolling pin, on the kitchen counter. My son did not roll them. He held the rolling pin with two hands, and hammered out the candy.

Measure out 32 ounces of heavy whipping cream into the pail or bucket. Add 2 Cups of whole milk. Add 1 Cup of cane sugar. Start churning, but wait about 15 minutes before adding the crushed candy. Otherwise, the largest chunks will sink to the bottom of the bucket. The Whynter machine can churn up to 60 minutes for a cycle, but for my recipes, it starts to bind at about 36 minutes. You may then remove the paddle and switch to cooling only.