Ben & Jerry's Homemade Ice Cream & Dessert Book Paperback – January 5, 1987

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!!

I bought an ice cream maker with a condenser. When I did, I got carried away and bought four or five recipe books to try. This is by far the book I use the most. I haven’t had a bad batch of ice cream from the recipes in this book.

This ice-cream is AWESOME!!!!!!! It was the best I ever had in my life, until we recently had home-made ice-cream at a shop in Colorado Springs, where they apparently use the same process but have perfected all the awesome candy/cookie/goodie combinations that I haven't had the time to yet! But I digress. Whenever I serve this to friends they say the same thing - the best ice-cream they've ever had. Just about every recipe is a winner - french vanilla, oreo mint, peanut butter cup, mmmmm. A friend requested peanut butter banana and the texture was a little strange, but even B&J mentioned that the "health food types" always request that kind, and what kind of a texture would you expect from PB & banana? I look forward to making this ice-cream for the rest of my life. Pair it up with a kitchenaid ice-cream maker attachment or whatever kind you prefer, and you are set. You will (rarely) buy store-bought ice-cream again. I eat this in little tiny bowls, usually just one scoop because it is so rich. Just substitute egg-beaters for the eggs (they weren't so concerned about salmonella when this book was published), and remember their rule of thumb...there's not such thing as bad ice-cream!! Especially when you're using the recipes from this fantastic book.Oh, and it's funny and entertaining too :)Update: I've now made every single recipe from the book, and can say with complete enthusiasm that I still love this book just as much as when I bought it five or six years ago. You'll have your favorite flavors based on your own personal taste, but these are pretty much all winners. Well, with the exception of the canteloupe ice cream (unless someone out there liked that...I'd love to hear feedback :) 25 of the ice cream flavors ended up being "keepers" in our house, but we really enjoyed trying all of them. The sundae combinations, dessert sauces like hot fudge and butterscotch sauce, ice cream cakes, brownies etc. in the back section of the book are also very good. You can't go wrong with this book as long as you don't mind likely subbing out for the raw eggs. Other options that I now do, besides sometimes using eggbeaters, are to use pasteurized eggs (the Davidson's brand is sold at our local Sprouts Farmers Market and Vons grocery stores) or just making a custard-base from another ice cream book and using the mix-ins from this book. You can also leave out the eggs, but the ice cream won't taste quite as good. Happy churning!

…at 4AM. The biggest additions this book gave to my knowledge on ice cream were (1) a simplified understanding of adjusting butterfats in ice cream, depending on your planned add-ins and (2) you can make ice cream without cooking the base. I can’t eat raw eggs anymore—doctor’s orders—so I’ll still make some ice cream custard using the old fashioned stovetop method in ‘The Joy of Cooking.’ But I’m going to try the no-cook whisking recipes from Ben & Jerry right away and see what the rest of my family thinks. Can’t wait to try it!