By Ben MillerYesterday's post to the contrary, I'm generally not a dessert person. But when cooking, I'm often drawn to recipes or dishes simply because of their complexity or for the chance to say "I made my own..." As such, one of my favorite recent gadget additions has been the unused ice cream maker I took from my parents' basement earlier in the summer. Not only is it colorful, very 1980s, and an antique household collectible (I have the same model but in obnoxious yellow), it also makes delicious ice cream, sorbet and frozen yogurt. So far, I've used the ice cream maker to create strawberry frozen yogurt, peach ice cream, mango sorbet, and cookies and cream ice cream. Of those, I'd say the peach ice cream was probably my favorite, though it also was by far the most involved since I had to wait for the peaches to ripen and then I made it over the course of two days. While I did find all of these to be quite tasty, there are a few caveats. For one, I've found that the homemade frozen desserts simply don't keep well. They tend to get icy quickly, so it's best to have a crowd over to finish it that night (or just a large appetite for ice cream). Secondly, these are in no way healthy recipes and for the most part are quite rich and heavy. What actually inspired me to retrieve the ice cream maker in the first place was a fond memory of an incredibly light and airy homemade ice cream my uncle served at one point. If any readers have suggestions for how to make a lighter, airer version of any of these, please feel free to share them in the comments below.Photo used under a Creative Commons license from Flickr user ulterior epicureRecipes for the peach ice cream, strawberry frozen yogurt and mango sorbet after the jump. ICE CREAM, SORBET AND FROZEN YOGURT.
By Ben MillerYesterday's post to the contrary, I'm generally not a dessert person. But when cooking, I'm often drawn to recipes or dishes simply because of their complexity or for the chance to say "I made my own..." As such, one of my favorite recent gadget additions has been the unused ice cream maker I took from my parents' basement earlier in the summer. Not only is it colorful, very 1980s, and an antique household collectible (I have the same model but in obnoxious yellow), it also makes delicious ice cream, sorbet and frozen yogurt. So far, I've used the ice cream maker to create strawberry frozen yogurt, peach ice cream, mango sorbet, and cookies and cream ice cream. Of those, I'd say the peach ice cream was probably my favorite, though it also was by far the most involved since I had to wait for the peaches to ripen and then I made it over the course of two days. While I did find all of these to be quite tasty, there are a few caveats. For one, I've found that the homemade frozen desserts simply don't keep well. They tend to get icy quickly, so it's best to have a crowd over to finish it that night (or just a large appetite for ice cream). Secondly, these are in no way healthy recipes and for the most part are quite rich and heavy. What actually inspired me to retrieve the ice cream maker in the first place was a fond memory of an incredibly light and airy homemade ice cream my uncle served at one point. If any readers have suggestions for how to make a lighter, airer version of any of these, please feel free to share them in the comments below.Photo used under a Creative Commons license from Flickr user ulterior epicureRecipes for the peach ice cream, strawberry frozen yogurt and mango sorbet after the jump. 
