We have a hand-crank Donvier we got when we were married in 1995 that is almost constantly in use from about the 4th of July to mid-September. (The brand-name one is overpriced. Get a clone, which can be had for under $20 on sale.) DH wants an electric and I may get him one for his birthday (which is 2 days after Christmas LOL) if end-of-summer sales yield any REALLY good prices on reliable machines. Here's the base recipe we use, from the Ben & Jerry's book... I don't think you could GET any simpler, and it's surprisingly good. We pretty much never use a custard base because our kitchen is not air conditioned, and diddling around making custard in a 90-odd degree kitchen is officially Not Worth It in our book. For a 1 quart ice cream maker, combine 1 can sweetened, condensed milk (many of us remember it as "Eagle milk") with 2 cups light cream, a splash of vanilla extract and a pinch of salt. Do NOT leave out the salt! Stir well, chill at least 2 hours before putting in the ice cream maker. You can substitute full-fat ("cream top") vanilla yogurt for half the cream but it doesn't really save you much calorically, just does interesting things to the flavor and can make you feel a little virtuous LOL! Lower-fat yogurts give a strange chalky texture and unsweetened yogurt makes for very sour product. (Found from unpleasant experience that just chucking a quart of yogurt straight from the container into the ice cream maker, no matter how yummy it is normally, does not make nice frozen yogurt, oh no not at all!) There's a simple plain base, now start playing... A super easy way to get a delicious fruity flavor ice cream is to substitute 1 cup of a good strong jam for 1 cup of the cream. (I don't recommend doing both jam and yogurt and eliminating all the cream. The result came out... the only word I can find for it is "stretchy".) The jam concentrates the fruit's flavor; warm "seedy" jams like raspberry or blackberry until they're liquidy and push them through a strainer if you don't want to be picking seeds out of your teeth for days. If you want fruit pieces, line a cookie sheet with the nonstick foil or baking parchment (or a Silpat if you're blessed with one), spread out a layer of finely chopped fruit with the pieces not touching, or minimally touching, and freeze rock solid. Add the fruit pieces at the very end of churning. Toast any nuts you wish to add for a stronger, "nuttier" flavor; and grating frozen chocolate bars on the largest holes of a grater (use an oven mitt to hold the chocolate so your body heat doesn't melt it) gives a better result IMO than using chocolate chips, even the mini kind. If you want to use something like butterscotch chips, freeze them and break them up in small batches in a food processor on "pulse". Good use for one of those mini-chopper types. Remember that your liquid ice cream/sorbet/yogurt mixture has to be almost sickeningly-sweet in its unfrozen state to taste "normal" as a finished product - the cold numbs your taste buds so all the flavors have to be STRONG. Oh, and filling the churning chamber more than about 2/3 full, 3/4 at the most, can be a recipe for a Big Sticky Mess. So don't do it. Honey-sweetened ice cream does not store well more than 24 hours - it gets crumbly and weird-textured, so if you want to do something with honey, have enough people around to scarf it down within hours of curing. Alcohol will interfere in the solidifying process so if you really load it up even with an overnight cure you may not get more than a "soft serve" texture. We bought a whole slew of nice little (not quite 1/2 cup) lidded plastic containers into which we portion the ice cream while it's still in the "soft serve" state. Pop them in the freezer and in 4 hours it's solidified enough to have the proper ice cream "mouthfeel", although I like 8 hours' curing time. If we don't pre-portion it DH will go WAY overboard! Oh, and the famous Mark Bittman/New York Times "eggless ice cream" was IMNSHO utterly REVOLTING.

I've made this. No eggs or milk. Divine. I served it with the three ingredient ice recipe made with frozen raspberries. "Chocolate Sorbet Adapted from The Perfect Scoop This is not a sorbet for chocolate moderates. It's for people who like chocolate to be all they can taste when they bite into something. And for the love of all that is bathing suit season, someone with better moderation than me, because I suspect it is no longer "light" if you eat it all. Servings: Makes 1 quart (1 liter) but you can tell your husband less so he doesn't figure out how much you've kept from him. (At least until he sees the chocolate smudges on your face.) 2 1/4 cups (555 ml) water 1 cup (200 g) sugar 3/4 cup (75 g) unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder Pinch of salt 6 ounces (170 g) bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, finely chopped 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract In a large saucepan (yes, you must use a large one or it will bubble over. Trust me.), whisk together 1 1/2 cups (375 ml) of the water with the sugar, cocoa powder, and salt. Bring to a boil, whisking frequently. Let it boil, continuing to whisk, for 45 seconds. Remove from the heat and stir in the chocolate until it's melted, then stir in the vanilla extract and the remaining 3/4 cup (180 ml) water. Transfer the mixture to a blender and blend for 15 seconds. Chill the mixture thoroughly, then freeze it in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions. If the mixture has become too thick to pour into your machine, whisk it vigorously to thin it out." I have a Cuisinart dual bowl ice cream maker. Many folks think it's noisy but it doesn't bother me. It's not noisy for that long and it's lots quieter than some other appliances I own like my hand mixer or my blender. Here is a link that might be useful: Chocolate Sorbet

One thing to remember is that it's very difficult to make ice cream in small batches (1-2 portions) unless you have a tiny maker. The temperatures for home freezers which are good for preserving meats, etc., are too cold for homemade ice cream and turn it into rock. Letting it warm up to scoop sort of works but the texture suffers. Low fat versions don't hold well at all and go icy. Since it sounds like you want it for just yourself, you might want to consider buying premium all natural ice cream. The dollars and cents might be worth it, all told. I have an ice cream freezer, so can't comment directly on the methods you mentioned. I mostly make sorbets, and freeze yoghurt/fruit mixtures, though I sometimes make ice cream as well. I have friends who are very pleased with the KitchenAid attachment. Remember, you do have to devote freezer space to the bowl--you have to freeze it before using. Most people keep it in their freezers. It has to be frozen 15 hours before use anyway. It has been known to develop leaks of the blue cooling gel when not stored well. In general, it's a very good product. The biggest thing for proper American style ice cream is to get the aeration, which your mixer can well provide. Another popular method is the Ball. This has the advantage of being able to make small quantities (they sell pint (four standard portions) and quart size). It works like an old fashioned ice cream churn with the ice and , but instead of cranking, you play with the ball. Burn off the calories before you eat the ice cream! The VitaMix might be useful for making the mixture. If "missing ice cream" means a particular flavor and mouth feel, I think you're best off at least trying to find something commercial that meets all of your requirements (don't forget ice cream parlors--they'll usually sell you take home amounts). You could spend a lot of time and money pursuing that elusive something. If you just want to enjoy making your own frozen treats, go for it!

sushi, the yogurt was very, very good, non-diabetic family members fought over it. The only problem was that when storing in the freezer, it frozen really, REALLY hard and had to sit out for a little while so it could be scooped. another thread mentioned that a couple of tablespoons of vodka would help keep it from freezing so hard, but I didn't try it. Yes, I just swapped the sugar called for in the recipe with Splenda. Whatever the box said equaled the right amount, that's what I used. I actually thought it was a bit too sweet, but all the eggs and cream kept it smooth and nicely creamy. All I did for the frozen yogurt was puree fresh fruit in the food processor, stir in yogurt and Splenda to taste, and put it in the ice cream freezer, it was kind of like a frozen smoothie, but I think I'd experiment with that a bit to see if I could keep it from freezing so hard. Hugs to your friend and good luck. Annie