Making Ice Cream

Festive cheer is warm and inviting but I’m bringing you festive cheer in frozen form today as I’m making ice cream! ZOKU is an American company who now sell in 30 countries worldwide. Their first hit product was the Quick Pop Maker and the company grew from there. I’m using the ZOKU Ice Cream Maker to create ice cream for Christmas, so here’s how I made Peppermint Cocoa Ice Cream!

Ingredients:

One and a half cups of whole milk

One and a half cups of heavy cream

Three quarters of a cup of granulated sugar

One tablespoon of vanilla extract

Half a teaspoon of peppermint extract

Two thirds cup of cocoa powder

One quarter teaspoon of salt

(Optional) Mini marshmallows to serve

Method:

Place the empty, clean inner bowl of the ZOKU Ice Cream Maker into the freezer overnight to prepare it.

Whisk the milk, cream, sugar, extracts, cocoa powder and salt together until everything is thoroughly combined.

Cover and chill in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes. Overnight if possible.

The next day…

Whisk the liquid mixture again before using to thoroughly blend the cocoa powder into the liquid.

Remove ZOKU inner bowl from the freezer, place into the outer sleeve.

Pour 5oz of liquid mixture into the ZOKU bowl and begin stirring and scraping the bowl immediately with the spoon.

It takes between 5 and 7 minutes of mixing to get the right consistency. The unit freezes from the outside- in so the frozen bits need to be scraped away from the sides of the bowl and mixed in with the rest every 30 seconds or so.

The final consistency is like a soft ‘Mr Whippy’ type ice cream rather than a hard ice cream.

If you want a firmer end result, place the bowl back into the freezer for another 30 minutes to set.

Here is my finished soft scoop…

This is when I let the mixture set for longer in the freezer…

The USP of ZOKU products is that you can make frozen desserts in minutes (once all the stuff is prepared!) It is fun to do with the kids to show them the transformation before their eyes, although I’d have to say I found it easier to prepare the mixture then pour it into a plastic tub to set in the freezer before eating, but maybe I’m just being lazy! I loved the recipes in the ZOKU Endless Summer book and would use these fab recipes again, there are 54 different ideas in the book for all kinds of frozen desserts so you’d never get bored.

My kids and I enjoyed the peppermint cocoa ice cream which is a perfect festive treat for Christmas!

“Thank you to ZOKU for sending us the Ice Cream Maker to try out.”