Ben & Jerry's Light Chocolate Ice Cream

For my birthday this year, my sister sent me the best package of my life. Ever since I got my Kitchen Aid mixer, I have wanted all sorts of attachments that fit the mixer. The pasta maker, the meat grinder, the shredder, and whatever else there is. But the one I knew I wanted the most was the ice cream maker and my sister made it happen. Now my freezer is half full of ice cream, more than I can eat by myself, but at least I'm set for a while. Ice cream is actually quite easy to make and I don't think I can ever go back to store-bought. I can put whatever I want in there with ingredients that I can pronounce. (Remember when that was Breyer's marketing idea? Not so much anymore!) I cannot wait to take it home so that I can stock my parents' freezer with homemade ice cream.



The first flavor I went for was vanilla because that is my favorite flavor of all time. I like my crazy flavors now and then but the classics is the way to go. I used Ben & Jerry's recipe but I think I will try a few more recipes before I declare a favorite. For chocolate though, I think I have found *my* favorite. I'm not a fan of plain chocolate ice cream - the chocolate can get too strong for me. But Ben & Jerry's Light Chocolate Ice Cream has the right amount of chocolate flavor in it for me that it's perfect. It is smooth every time I scoop it and tastes delicious every time. I am never buying store bought again!



When you get an ice cream maker yourself, I would invest in a couple good books. I got myself Ben & Jerry's Homemade Ice Cream & Dessert Book. It's got basic recipes and some crazy recipes and even other dessert ideas besides ice cream. I also got myself David Lebovitz's Perfect Scoop, which contains also some great basic recipes and some other fancy flavors such as salted caramel, and Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home, which contains the craziest recipes for ice cream I have ever seen! Toasted rice with coconut? Beet? Yup. Unfortunately, I can't share today's recipe as it is a published recipe but I'll be sure to try to share more ice cream stories in the future!