Ben & Jerry's Homemade Ice Cream & Dessert Book
by Ben Cohen, Jerry Greenfield, Nancy Stevens
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Book Reviews of Ben & Jerry's Homemade Ice Cream & Dessert Book
Book Review: Simple recipes and EXCELLENT ice cream
Summary: 5 Stars
I bought this book back in the 1980s when it was first printed. It's so dog-eared and has food spills on it from years of use, I decided to buy a fresh copy. Homemade ice cream, for me, used to be a complex, time-consuming endeavor before this book. Ben and Jerry share their recipes and ice cream tips, which are absolutely simple to make. No cooking required. But let's address the raw egg issue and how I solved it.
I read several comments about the raw eggs called for in the recipes. Since the 1980s I always made this ice cream with raw eggs and no illnesses. Maybe I'm just more paranoid as I get older, but I didn't want to use raw eggs this time. But I didn't want to leave the eggs out, as I think they are essential to the consistency of the ice cream. And I didn't want the hassle of cooking the recipe. My solution was using pasteurized shell eggs.
I read some reviews here and elsewhere and found that you can purchase pasteurized shell eggs. A company called Davidson's makes them. They're not easy to find in the Bay Area where I live, but there was one store (Bristol Farms) that sold them in San Francisco. I bought a dozen there.
Also, I read another comment in which the person called Ben and Jerry's and was told that they could use Egg Beaters in place of raw eggs. I've never used Egg Beaters for anything, but have seen them in my grocery store. They are eggs that have been cracked and pasteurized and put into a little carton. I couldn't find any "plain" Egg Beaters in my grocery store that didn't have seasoning in them, so I went with the Davidson's pasteurized shell eggs. They come in a container just like regular shell eggs. They ARE regular shell eggs, but they've gone through some process to eliminate bacteria that could make you sick. When you crack them, they are raw, but they are okay to eat raw. Davidson's has a web site ([...]) which will reassure you.
With this raw egg issue out of the way, I want to say that this is the perfect ice cream book, especially if you're a fan of Ben and Jerry's and you like homemade ice cream.
By the way, they have three basic sweet cream recipes. Two of those don't even require eggs; and many recipes incorporate the sweet cream base, such as Strawberry, Peanut Butter, Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, etc., and you can choose which sweet cream base to use. I like the sweet cream base that uses the raw eggs, but that's my personal preference. However, I just made the sweet cream base with the condensed sweetened milk, and it was quite good.
This book could use an update to include the flavors that were created over the last 20 years. But with some imagination, you can adapt some of them to match. For example, Chunky Monkey was not formulated when this book was written, but there is recipe for Banana ice cream. I made the banana ice cream and added 1/2 cup walnuts and 1/2 cup chocolate chunks. Ta-da! It is almost identical to Chunky Monkey.
They also have some flavors that we might not have seen in the store, such as Maple Grape Nuts, Strawberry Coconut, Banana Peanut Butter, Beer Sorbet, Oreo Mint Cookie using chocolate ice cream, and a lot of others. They also have three recipes for chocolate ice cream: Ben's Chocolate, Jerry's Chocolate, and Light Chocolate.
The simplicity of the recipes are what make this such a great book. Milk, cream, eggs, sugar and whatever other specific flavor ingredients needed. Mix 'em up and pour into the ice cream maker. A couple of recipes require you to chill the cream mix for a little while (Ben's Chocolate, for example), but most of them are mix the ingredients, pour into the ice cream maker, and 20-30 minutes later you've got your ice cream.
These recipes are darn good. This gourmet ice cream is rich and tastes like a real professional made it.
One note: They say to add your chunks (Heath Bars, cookies, chips, etc.) about 2 minutes before the ice cream is done. My ice cream maker Cuisinart ICE-20 Automatic 1-1/2-Quart Ice-Cream Maker, White doesn't like the big chunks--larger than a chocolate chip, so I add them after the ice cream finishes. The ice cream is usually still soft enough to use a big plastic spoon and stir in the chunks before putting into the containers, which I also bought from Amazon Plain White Pint Size Frozen Dessert Containers.
This is a user-friendly book, which is entertaining and has silly illustrations. But the recipes are no-nonsense as far as working exactly as expected. Some of my favorite recipes are Oreo Mint Cookie (using either vanilla or chocolate ice cream--and I use Newman's Oreo-like cookies), Banana, Strawberry, Orange Cream Dream, Ben's Chocolate with almonds, Peanut Butter, Vanilla Malt and Butter Pecan, to name a few. I have not tried the Coconut yet, nor have I tried the sorbets. I also experimented with using some Girl Scout Cookies--breaking up the Peanut Butter sandwich cookies and putting them in sweet cream. Yum.
Get yourself some pasteurized eggs (if you are concerned about raw eggs), and have fun making ice cream. Someone mentioned that this book, along with an ice cream maker would make a good gift. I agree. Good stuff!!
Book Review: You can't go wrong with this book
Summary: 5 Stars
This is an awesome little ice-cream book. It has a TON of recipes, and once you make enough of them, you will realize that they are just the jumping off point for whatever your imagination can come up with. Their bases (such as French Vanilla, Vanilla, and Chocolate) are fantastic. Their ideas are awesome. They include tons of ice-creams, but also ices & sorbets, brownies & blondies, an AMAZING fudge sauce (still dreaming about it) and other yummy sauces, and a surprisingly good collection of sundae ideas that have all been great. And this book as a "sense of humor"; you can just sit down and read it for about 30 minutes, learning about the story of Ben & Jerry, ice-cream making basics, and their take on each of the different flavors. It's a funny and yummy book!
A few thoughts after making TONS of homemade ice-cream:
1) You can't compare to home-made ice-cream in flavor. The only ice-cream better than homemade is found in one of those specialty shops where they make home-made ice-cream fresh daily in their store, and have come up with fabulous flavors. Coldstone is also made fresh daily so they have that creamy soft flavor. But its really expensive compared to store-bought or home-made, per ounce. Otherwise, home made is always better. That's because ice-cream is best within the first few days or weeks when it is most soft and creamy, and that's impossible for big companies to deliver. It's not their fault, but your ice-cream will taste better than anything you can buy in the store. Which is amazing because it is easy to make. So this is one of those products that really makes a HUGE difference making it at home in terms of quality.
2) Ben and Jerry's cookbook was written before the salmonella concerns/awareness that we have now, so their recipes call for raw eggs. You can use raw eggs if 1) you've done your salmonella research and are comfortable with the risks 2) aren't elderly 3) aren't giving the ice-cream to children and 4) aren't planning on sharing the ice-cream with anyone else. I usually just substitute egg-beaters or any similar product because it's easy and I like to share my ice-cream with friends/family. But it does make the ice-cream slightly more expensive to make, and sometimes I end up making multiple batches so the egg-beaters aren't wasted. Modern recipes (as well as B&J's chocolate ones) call for making a custard first, which heats up the eggs and makes them safe to eat. Unfortunately, the custard has to be chilled for 4 hours (some say overnight) and this can add up to a whole day more to the ice-cream making process! So if you're frugal, you might prefer making the custard (and using another book would therefore be necessary) so that you don't have to buy eggbeaters. But that will take more time.
3) I'm not a huge fan of fruit ice-creams. From multiple ice-cream cookbooks. Just saying' :)
4) Ice-cream is fun to make. Here's a basic recipe: Make vanilla or chocolate. Two minutes before it's done, add whatever candy or cookies or nuts you want. Mmmmm.
Book Review: Easy to follow, huge variety, extremely informative, amusing illustrations. Perfect!
Summary: 5 Stars
This is the PERFECT book for anybody who has an ice cream maker. I'd go so far as to say that it's the only book you need if want to make ice cream at home. This isn't merely a book on getting the popular Ben & Jerry's flavors you see in the store, but everything else you'll ever need to know about ice cream making.
What's best is that B&J explain all their trials and errors in plain English. They'll tell you what works and what doesn't, and why. There's still more than enough room to experiment, but using this book can save you countless hours of quarts-gone-bad.
I bought my first ice cream maker last fall at Sharper Image. Although the machine came with some sample recipes, I wanted to buy some books for some more in-depth ideas. Bruce Weinstein's "Ultimate Ice Cream Book" was huge, but almost too big, and a little strange to navigate through. But this little Ben & Jerry's book is excellent.
The first chapter on Ben & Jerry's history is a fun read, but it's the second chapter, "Ice Cream Theory", you'll definitely want to pay attention to before diving into the recipes. This is an excellent 8 page crash course in ice cream 101. What exactly makes ice cream the way it is? How precisely does heavy cream match up with light cream, whole milk, condensed whole milk, or evaporated milk, and what are the different results from using these? How exactly do sweeteners, eggs, fruit, and salt fit in to the equation? How do you add the stuff like cookies and nuts, or liquor?
The next section gives you three different recipes for "sweet cream" bases, before going on to the individual recipes. Most of the recipes in the book just call for creating one of these sweet cream bases first, then adding whatever else makes the specific flavor you want. It's set up as one recipie per page. And the ice cream recipes are further broken down into other categories: chocolate variations, sorbets, using fruits or cookies, etc.
In addition to all of that, the book includes recipes for desserts like brownies and cookies, plus recipes for sauce toppings, fried ice cream, and a number of other strange concoctions.
I guess my only complaint would be that the book is 20 years old and could use some updating, namely some more recipes on other B&J flavors that have come and gone since then. Then again, maybe it's up for us to explore that. Oh yeah, and do get yourself a gym membership! You're going to need it after using this book.
Book Review: A little Ben and Jerry's history mixed with great recipes
Summary: 5 Stars
I love ice cream. I bet Ben & Jerry won't mind my saying I love Haagen Dazs' Rum Raisin and Breyer's Butter Pecan and there's hardly anything more decadent than one of those Chocolate Dove Bars.
Ben & Jerry's is over the top, double-dog wicked good. They obviously got the idea of picking out big chunks of great-tasting items and putting them into their ice cream. Some of their flavors are so full of big chunks of chocolate, delicious nuts and flavorful fruits it seems like you can hardly find the ice cream for the goodies!
Ben & Jerry's is also a Great-American success story of a "Mom and Pop" business that started out with a couple of guys who wanted to make good ice cream.
This book is a bargain for Ice Cream lovers. You get easy-to-use recipes for hundreds of ice creams and other desserts - with favorites like "Cherry Garcia" and "Heath Bar Crunch". You also get a mini-history of Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream company with interesting tidbits like their fight to allow their Ice Cream to be sold in groceries against one of the food superpowers, who was trying to push Ben & Jerry aside. If B&J hadn't won that legal battle it's unlikely you or I would have ever heard of them and their wonderful ice creams, but it's still fun to read the first-person of this little New England David slaying the corporate Goliath. Ben & Jerry are well-known for their support of environmental-friendly causes, and they also struck a wonderful blow for free enterprise! Anyway - read more about that in the book.
The book includes fantastic recipes, but also juicy tidbits - things you can do to your ice-cream or ingredients to make them "creamier" or have more "mouthfeel". For you cooks who love to experiment in the kitchen, this book gives you a great starting place - they give you several excellent "starter" base recipes. Then, once you've got your basic vanilla or chocolate (and they give you variations on each, along with their two cents about what makes one different from another) you can go crazy and add your own goodies.
Almost all of the recipes are to make a quart or quart and a half - exactly the right amount to go in one of those great new electric ice-cream makers. There are several of THOSE you can get for less than $30.
Only recommended for those who love ice cream. Is that you? Get the book - go crazy!
Book Review: Expert Advice
Summary: 4 Stars
This book provides an introduction into the science of ice cream making, Ben & Jerry's style. It begins with a short history of the Ben & Jerry's ice cream story-don't skip this part-it's quite amusing in places. Then they bring on the main event, the ice cream recipes, first the bases, then the variations. Following this is a section on other desserts and sweets to be served with the ice cream, delicacies like super-fudge brownies and whipped cream.
One aspect I really like about this book is that they generally use just the 3 different ice cream bases provided at the beginning of the book. All the remaining recipes rely on one of those bases, but they add instructions about quantities of other ingredients and how to prepare them before adding them to the ice cream. This approach enables novice ice cream makers to really get a handle on the science of making ice cream, rather than having to deal with entirely new recipes each time. Ben and Jerry include in their recipes numerous tips for success-it's clear that they didn't simply try these recipes out in a test kitchen. These guys actually had to try sell the results to customers, a much higher quality standard than just seeing if the taste was passable. This book is one of the most used recipes books in our kitchen, not only for ice cream recipes, but for other essentials, like the giant chocolate chip cookie recipe (it even beat grandma's chocolate chip cookie recipe-no small feat!).
The only drawback to the book is its reliance on raw eggs in a great number of the recipes. Perhaps it was safe to put eggs in your ice cream without cooking them back in the 80s when this book was written, but you should really think twice before doing so now. These days, thanks to factory egg farms, you have to assume that supermarket eggs are contaminated with salmonella even inside the shells, so you must cook them well before eating them, and especially before serving anything made with eggs to small children or older folks. Freezing doesn't kill bacteria-it just slows growth down a bit, so if an egg contains salmonella and goes into ice cream uncooked, the results could be disastrous. To be on the safe side, either cook the ingredients for the ice cream bases that include eggs over a low heat until they thicken, then chill before freezing, or use eggs from sources you know to be salmonella free.