Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

I'm lactose intolerant and recently bought an ice cream maker. I started experimenting with online gelato recipes, since gelato recipes use milk intead of cream, but I use a lactose-free brand of milk. There are two things to keep in mind with lactose-free milk. First, the brand of lactose-free milk that I use is sweeter than regular milk. So I use less sugar than the amount listed on recipes. Second, lactose-free milk has a watery texture when compared to whole milk, which makes for icier/harder ice cream. I started experimenting with different ingredients to thicken the recipe, e.g., gelatin and pectin. I may try guar or xantham gum next since gelatin and pectin haven't yielded the texture that I'm looking for.

Here's the basic recipe that I use (sometimes with less eggs):

Ingredients:
• 8 egg yolks
• 2/3 cups sugar
• 4 cups lactose-free whole milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract or more to taste, or a vanilla bean

Beat the yolks with the sugar; when the mixture is a pale yellow slowly stir in the whole milk. Put the pot on a high flame and continue stirring with a wooden spoon until it begins to steam, then reduce the heat to low and continue stirring gently until it begins to thicken and sticks somewhat to the spoon, remove the pot from the fire, let the mixture cool, and make the ice cream in your ice cream maker. If I'm using a vanilla bean, I cut it in half and add it in when heating the ingredients and remove the halves when the mixture is thick enough. Otherwise, I stir in 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract at the end. I also added the gelatin/pectin towards the end of the heating process since they both need heat to activate.

For variety, when the ice cream has almost completely formed in the ice cream maker, I've added crushed Oreos or a crushed Heath bar. I plan on making other flavors eventually but have been focusing on texture first.

I hope that helps.

Perfect Scoop is awesome, and you can also find lots of other incredibly good recipes on David Lebovitz's blog (he couldn't fit them all in the book and I think it's a huge shame that his salted butter caramel ice cream didn't make it in there). I've done a few homemade ice creams on my blog - many before I owned an ice cream maker at all!

http://verysmallanna.com/tag/ice-cream/

I've made custard-style, Philadelphia-style (where you just whisk together milk, cream and flavorings), frozen yogurt and I'm waiting for my first soy ice cream to harden in the freezer at the moment. I love the incredible array of possibilities when it comes to homemade ice cream!

Yet another vote for "The Perfect Scoop."

But our hands-down favorite frozen treat is a can of pears in syrup - drain most of the syrup, puree, and chill in the fridge. Then toss in the ice cream maker with 1/2 tsp or so almond extract. Best served with slivered almonds and - wait for it - blue cheese crumbles!

Frozen yogurt is also great, we usually strain it for an hour or so in a sieve lined with paper towels before freezing. Plain yogurt with vanilla extract is good, and top with whatever fruit is in season.

We are enjoying the Buttermilk Ice Cream recipe posted by Deb at Smitten Kitchen. It calls for 12 egg yolks, but on her advice I cut that back to 6 or 7. Still very rich and delicious with that slight tang from the buttermilk. Heaven with summer fruit. I don't think I'll be able to face store-brand vanilla again!

Thanks so much everyone -- I can't wait to try a few of these out this weekend! And I've put my order in for "The Perfect Scoop"...David Lebovitz should thank all of you for his free advertising!!

@raisin, the ice cream coming out of the ice cream maker should be the consistency of soft serve ice cream, more or less. If it's not that thick, it could be that it needs to churn more, or it could be that it was churned so long that it started melting again. I don't go by time when I make mine, I go by texture and how it's churning. At some point with the Kitchenaid it's just too thick to churn any more, and then it's done. I take it out of the bowl and into a freezer container, and when it hardens, it's smooth and creamy, and there are no ice crystals.

Before you put it into the ice cream maker, let the mixture chill in the fridge for at least several hours. I usually let mine sit overnight in the fridge and churn the next day.

It could also be the recipe you're using. You have to have enough fat and enough sugar or the texture suffers.

I make dairy-free ice cream quite often in my ice cream maker. I use soy creamer (the Silk brand is the only one I've seen at the store) as a replacement for milk, and I haven't had a problem yet with this substitute in any recipe I've tried. if you sub regular soy milk (or rice milk, etc), it tends to be too watery. but the soy creamer has plenty of fat and works very well. good luck!