My all time favorite is Cold Stone Creamery's Sweet Cream Ice Cream. So, of course I've had to figure out how to make it on my own at home. I'd have to say the recipe I created tastes exactly the same. I did make a change in ingredients compared to what they use, they use guar gum as a thickener but I didn't want to purchase it so I used cornstarch in my recipe. The benefits of guar gum are that you don't have to heat the ice cream in order for it to thicken, whereas with cornstarch you do. But the benefit of cornstarch is that it is a much more common house hold ingredients so you likely already have it on hand and use it for other recipes.
To explain Cold Stone Creamery's Sweet Cream Ice Cream I would call it The Ice Cream of the God's. Purely decadent, silky smooth, simple yet unbelievably incredible and the perfect base for any "mix-in." My personal favorite "mix-ins" are Oreos or brownies. I also love raspberries and graham cracker crust. Oh and twix, okay okay I love them all but my top fav is Oreos. What's your favorite mix-in? Pick your favorite and add it to this insanely delicious Sweet Cream Ice Cream recipe. I also love to eat it excluding mix-ins, it's so amazingly good no mix-ins are needed, just a bonus if desired.
Cold Stone Creamery Sweet Cream Ice Cream
Yields about 4 servings
Ingredients:
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 Tbsp cornstarch
2 cups heavy cream
1 cup whole milk
1/4 cup light corn syrup
In a large saucepan, whisk together sugar and cornstarch until combine. Pour in cream, milk and corn syrup and whisk until well blended. Cook mixture over medium heat (sometimes I even cook it over medium high to speed it up a bit), stirring constantly until mixture comes just to a gentle boil. Once mixture reaches a gentle boil, reduce heat and allow mixture to gently bubble, stirring constantly, for 30 seconds. Strain mixture through a fine mesh sieve into a large bowl. Cover mixture with saran wrap or wax paper, pressing directly against the surface of the ice cream base to prevent a skin from forming. Refrigerate mixture until fully chilled, then transfer to freezer and freeze 1 hour - 1 1/2 hours (I've found this really helps the ice cream structure when freezing post ice cream maker processing, it basically gives it a head start). Transfer extra chilled ice cream mixture to an ice cream maker and freeze according to manufacturers directions. Transfer ice cream to an airtight container and freeze until nearly firm, or freeze until firm and soften in microwave about 5-10 seconds until slightly softened. Mix in desired "mix-ins" (if you wanted to prepare just as Cold Stone does, you could freeze a marble slab then use two large spoons to fold in mix-ins using chilled marble slab, or alternately you could add the mix-ins in during the last 5 minutes of processing in ice cream maker).
Recommended mix ins:
crushed oreos
cookie dough bites, chopped
crushed graham cracker or graham pie crust
berries
diced brownies
sprinkles
chopped chopped candy bars
caramel, chocolate or berry sauce
crushed sugar cones or waffle cones
chocolate chips
chopped nuts
...basically whatever you feel like =)
