My granddaddy, Charlie Sexton, told me that he preferred store-bought ice cream and bakery-made cakes over homemade. His reasoning was simple. When he was a child, growing up in rural DeSoto County, his family couldn’t afford store-bought ice cream and cake. So, his mother made everything they ate from scratch.
Ironically, these days, homemade ice cream is a luxury. To pull out the ice cream freezer and monitor the ice and salt content until it is just right – that is true love, my friends.
Although my granddaddy loved store-bought ice cream, my grandmother, Thelma Sexton, also known by most people – young and old -- in her community as “Mother,” made the richest, most decadent homemade ice cream in the world. Her fresh peach ice cream was much requested by friends and family alike.
Mother’s Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 can Eagle Brand milk
2 12 ounce cans Pet Milk
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
Whole milk
Cream eggs and sugar with an electric mixer. Mix in evaporated milk, condensed milk and vanilla. Beat this concoction well. Pour into an electric ice cream churn.
Add whole milk to fill line. Churn as directed.
My daddy loved my grandmother’s fresh peach ice cream. It was actually a family favorite and was usually served at Easter lunch.
To turn Mother’s homemade vanilla ice cream into fresh peach ice cream. Core and chop 4-5 fresh peaches. Pour ½ cup or 1 cup of sugar over the peaches and let sit for one hour before adding to the ice cream mixture.
Last summer, Carrollton Mayor Pam Lee and her husband, Snooky Lee, brought supper to the members of the Carrollton Pilgrimage Committee. The light meal was concluded with homemade orange sherbet. It was delicious, and super simple to make.
Orange-Pineapple Sherbet
1 can Eagle Brand Milk
1 small can of drained, crushed pineapple
1 2 liter bottle of orange soda
Mix the sweetened condensed milk, the drained crushed pineapple, and some of the orange soda. Pour into your ice cream maker, and top off with as much orange soda as the container will hold. Stir before churning.
Newspaper Office Manager Tina Gatlin makes a version of this sherbet without the pineapple. She mixes 6 cans of Orange Crush, Sunkist, or Nehi soda, 2 cans Eagle Brand, and 1 heaping cup sugar. Fills ice cream canister and then tops it off with the rest of the orange soda.
Several years ago, my son Dean attended a birthday party and the hosts served homemade vanilla ice cream and homemade chocolate ice cream. That chocolate ice cream was so good, I’m not certain if any of the children got any. We parents had our fill though. It tasted like a richer and creamier Frosty from Wendy’s.
Homemade chocolate ice cream
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 8 ounce tub Cool Whip
1/2 gallon chocolate milk
Mix ingredients and churn.
My friend Keetha Mosley of Winona has written and published two cookbooks, so it is safe to say she is a fantastic cook. Then she married her husband, Jeffrey, who is also a fantastic cook. Together, they can turn even the most polite supper guest into a plate-scraping maniac.
When it comes around for the Mosleys to host supper club, people come. They eat. They leave stuffed and full and excited for the next visit.
Keetha served a simple watermelon sorbet to our supper club several years ago, and it was delicious and refreshing and pretty much summer in a dish.
Watermelon Sorbet
4 cups seedless watermelon chopped
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup water
1 teaspoon lime juice
Quarter a watermelon. Remove the rind and chop the watermelon into squares.
In a small saucepan, add in the sugar, water and lemon juice. Heat over medium and stir until the sugar is dissolved. Add the watermelon and simple syrup into a blender. Blend until smooth. Don't strain out the pulp. Place the pureed watermelon into a bowl and place into the fridge until chilled. I let it sit for about 3 hours.
Place in the ice cream maker for the recommended time for your ice cream maker. Once it becomes slushy, place into a loaf pan. Cover with plastic wrap and place in the freezer overnight.
For those people who don’t have the time and energy to pull out the ice cream maker, this no churn recipe sounds quite yummy.
No Churn Cookies and Cream Ice Cream
2 cups cold heavy cream
1 can Eagle Brand milk
8 Oreo cookies, crushed
Add heavy cream to stand mixer and whip on high speed until stiff peaks form. In a large mixing bowl, add condensed milk. Using a spatula, gently fold in whipped cream until uniform and no condensed milk streaks remain. Fold in crushed Oreos. Pour ice cream into a loaf pan. Use a spatula to smooth and even out the surface. Freeze overnight.
