Belinda, funny you should ask. My girls got me one of those little Cuisinart ice cream freezers for Christmas. My first batch of anything was a couple of cups of frozen strawberries, a quart of my homemade yogurt and enough Equal to sweeten it to taste. I put everything into the food processor to chop up the frozen berries, then into the freezer, it was very, very yummy and my Dad, who is diabetic, loved it. I liked it better with sweet cherries and some grated dark chocolate, same "recipe" but different fruit. It does freeze very hard, because of the ingredients, but I just pop it in the microwave for a few seconds like Bejay does, and it scoops right out nicely. I also made my very favorite ice cream, it's just amazing for those coffee lovers among us, like me. It's another recipe I got from the Cooking Forum. Espresso-Brownie Chunk Ice Cream ================================ Fatlester - Gardenweb 1/2 pound brownies cut in 1/4 inch chunks 1 cup whole Espresso, French or vienna roast coffee beans 2 1/4 cups half and half cream 3/4 cup sugar 3 egg yolks 1 cup whipping cream . Wrap and firmly freeze the brownie chunks. Put the coffee beans on a jell-roll pan and over them with a dish towel. Using a veal pounder or the bottom of a heavy sauce pan, press to crush the beans thoroughly. (Do not substitute ground coffee) Transfer the crushed coffee beans to a medium saucepan. Add the half and half and heat it to simmering. Cover and simmer 10 minutes , then set the pan aside, off heat, for 15 minutes longer. Strain the liquid through a fine sieve into another saucepan, pressing to remove all liquid from the coffee beans; discard the solids. Stir the sugar into the strained coffee liquid and heat it to simmering. Put the egg yolks in a heatproof bowl and slowly whisk in the coffee liquid (or put the egg yolks in a food processor fitted with the metal blade and process, pouring in the coffee liquid). Cool the mixture slightly by stirring in the whipping cream. Set the bowl over ice or refrigerate until the custard is thoroughly chilled. (Can cover and refrigerate overnight). Transfer the custard to the cnaister of an ice-cream machine. Follow manufacturer's directions and churn until the ice cream is half frozen. Add frozen brownie pieces and continue churning until frozen. Serve immediately, or transfer ice cream to an airtight freezer container, seal and kep frozen until serving time. (Can freeze for several hours). Annie

I agree with everybody above with the caveat of telling any guests that the ice cream is made w/raw eggs. I'm one of those people with a compromised immune system & I'd like to be able to make my own choice about eating raw eggs. Like Lars, I'd use a Creme Anglaise base. Vanilla Creme Anglaise Ice Cream Ingredients 4 egg yolks 1/2 cup sugar 1 teaspoon cornstarch 1 3/4 cups scalded milk 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract 1 1/2 teaspoons Cognac Seeds of 1/2 vanilla bean, optional Directions Beat the egg yolks and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment on medium-high speed for 3 minutes, or until very thick. Reduce to low speed, and add the cornstarch. With the mixer still on low, slowly pour the hot milk into the eggs. Pour the custard mixture into a saucepan and cook over low heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, until thickened. The custard will coat the spoon like heavy cream. Don't cook it above 180 degrees or the eggs will scramble! Pour the sauce through a fine strainer, add the vanilla extract, Cognac, and vanilla seeds, if using. Freeze the mixture in an ice cream freezer according to the manufacturer's directions. Transfer to a plastic container and store in the freezer until ready to serve. /tricia

Thanks for filling in the gap between the two numbers Annie. Like Annie, I eat foods with raw eggs and prefer my steak and even my hamburgers (which are more risky because when you sear a steak with the inside medium rare, the inside was never exposed directly to external contamination but the some inside of your hamburger was on the outside) medium rare. And I eat raw fish in sushi. So far the only two times I've had food poisoning were when I was on business trips. The more recent time, nothing that I had eaten was a typical suspect so my guess is that the restaurant wasn't careful enough about cross contamination or had an employee not washing hands carefully enough. And we use to make quick eggnog (milk with a raw egg and some vanilla in the blender) for my kids one of whom went through a period as a very picky eater so it was one way to get some protein into his diet at the time. I also keep in mind that it the higher the bacterial load the more likely it is to make you sick. A few salmonella cells in a raw egg that has been kept refrigerated will probably be fought off by my immune system. I wouldn't for instance make eggnog, let it sit on the counter for half a day and then drink it. Just in case (IIRC the likelihood that an egg carries salmonella was something like 1 in 20,000) the egg had salmonella, I don't want to let something with raw egg sit at a danger zone temperature for an extended period of time. Ice cream has an advantage there - you know it has been kept cold since it was made. On the other hand, if I had guests over, I would at least let them know that there was raw egg in something and have an alternative because I think they should be able to make that decision for themselves and who knows who has a compromised immune system. And my son and DIL don't want my granddaughter to be fed food with raw eggs. Since children under 5 have salmonella diagnosed at a higher rate than adults (perhaps because it takes less to get them dangerously dehydrated or because they have less immunity?) that seems to be a sensible precaution. I've put in the link for how to cook eggs enough to kill salmonella while still being able to use them in raw egg recipes. This is a compromise for those who need it. I remember reading that someone tested the pasturized egg whites vs regular egg whites and they didn't whip to as much volume. That link also mentions using acidity to kill salmonella. You have to get the PH down to 4.0. If you make mayo and let it sit for a while before you mix it with something else, that may do it. Just tossing some lemon juice along with the egg into your ice cream mix probably wouldn't because the acidity of the lemon juice would be diluted too much by the other stuff. Here is a link that might be useful: instructions for cooking eggs to use in raw egg recipes

First, how many eggs? How many does the recipe call for? Secondly, is raw egg safe in ice cream? Now, you're going to get a lot of different, possibly contentious answers. I put raw eggs in my ice cream regularly, but I have my own small flock of hens and I know what they eat, that they are healthy, how the eggs were stored, how old they are, where they are from. If I were using commercial eggs, there's always that chance of salmonella. It's not a very big chance and we've had a discussion on it recently, but it's still a chance. My feeling is that if you are a healthy adult, I'd go for it. I wouldn't probably feed it to my baby or my elderly and ill grandmother, just because they are less capable of fighting off any possible "icky" things. Of course, for the record, I also eat raw beef, even ground beef, and I know that's frowned upon too. Again, I raise the beef and I know who processes it for me, so I have more control than many. Annie