Ben & Jerry's Homemade Ice Cream & Dessert Book

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!!

Ben & Jerry's Homemade Ice Cream & Dessert Book is a really fun and useful cookbook if you enjoy making ice cream at home. The recipes are creative, clearly written, and easy to follow, with a good mix of classic flavors and more unique combinations. I use it with my Cuisinart ice cream maker, and the recipes translate very well to that type of machine. The instructions are straightforward, and most recipes come together without any complicated steps or hard-to-find ingredients. What I like most is how consistently the base recipes turn out. The texture is smooth and creamy when followed properly, and it is easy to adjust mix-ins depending on what you like. Overall, it is a great book for anyone who wants to make homemade ice cream regularly. It works especially well with countertop ice cream makers like the Cuisinart, and it makes the whole process simple and enjoyable.

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!

This book is inspirational and informative, in a chatty, casual style that, while it makes the book fun to read, can sometimes lean toward too casual for my tastes. So I will tell you upfront the one gripe I have with the Ben & Jerry's book: it is vague about a topic I think is very important: cooking of ingredients. In particular, there are three basic "sweet cream" recipes (pg 28-9) in the book. The first describes a cream that uses eggs, cream, milk, and sugar, mixed together in a bowl. In the second recipe, however, Ben & Jerry point out that this number 2 recipe is easy because it doesn't involve any cooking, and sort of imply that also because of the lack of cooking (and/or the lack of eggs), the 2nd recipe won't last long in the freezer. So okay, did the first recipe involve cooking and we forgot to mention it? Or do none of the recipes involve cooking, and do we then assume that none of them will last long in the freezer? The authors have introduced a smoking gun in act two, when nothing was fired onstage in act one. That said, I still really like this book for the discussion of basic ice cream properties. In fact, I wish that discussion went into a little more detail. (Maybe I really need the Harold McGee ice cream book, if there was such a thing). And if you like crazy, wild, and inspiring ice cream recipes, Ben & Jerry are famous for them for a reason, and you will find those recipes in abundance here. So overall, I give this book a high rating for its basic info content and its wild ice cream chemistry tips and techniques, but a star off for some vagueness.

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!

When I bought an ice-cream maker I set a low bar for myself: I might be able to make something worth eating after a few months. After bombing out with a couple of recipes from the machine user guide and failing to accurately deconstruct B&J recipes from the grocery store, I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw this book. I also couldn't believe that the recipes accurately recreate much of what B&J sells at the store. Some of the recipes are even better than the store bought versions which have a lot of added preservative ingredients. The Oreo Mint and Chocolate Covered Almonds Mocha stand out and are probably better than any ice-cream you can buy at the grocery store. You can easily simulate and improve on B&J's more recent thin mint ice-cream with the mint recipe and kroger's fudge enrobed cookies. On the other hand, this only covers B&J recipes into the 1980s. So if you want to simulate something later like Chunky Monkey, you will have improvise from the banana ice-cream recipe. I tried it and it wasn't remotely as good as the bought version. A few recipes seem like duds to me. But you will have to try everything for yourself. I'm not going to call them out. I prefer these recipes to the cooked style icecream in books like The Perfect Scoop, though that is good too. B&J icecream is not cooked and I feel that makes it much fresher and more flavorful. Since B&J uses raw eggs, I recommend you use the pasteurized eggs that come in a carboard container. I also think you just get a smoother, lighter end product with the carton eggs over fresh eggs.

OK, so there are enough reviews on this book to give you hours of opinions, BUT, I am holding this book up against several others to tell my perspective. When I bought my Cuisinart ice cream machine, I researched all the ice cream books, and ended up with four, Ben & Jerry's, and 3 others. After browsing the Ben & Jerry book, I had a few concerns, like uncooked eggs. It was also missing most of the typical Ben & Jerry flavors. I started out with the other books, and found myself scratching my head over some of the vague instructions, including obtuse measurements like "2 large peaches." Some recipes require a large number of cooking steps and processes, adding more ambiguity, such as "medium heat," or "4 or 5 minutes." As time marched on, I discovered that EVERY recipe from Ben & Jerry's was a success, while most of the others were either outright failures or disappointments. I believe the cause of this is inadequate testing. That said, I also discovered that you must follow Ben & Jerry's recipes EXACTLY. The Georgia Peach was the best peach ice cream I've ever tasted, but I didn't like the frozen peach chunks, so I tried again, pureeing the peaches. Changed the whole thing, and left me with an off-taste. Next time, I will just chop the pieces smaller. The chocolates are fabulous. The Kiwi Sorbet is fantastic. Another difference in other books is the desire to provide recipes that can be made any time, hence the use of frozen and/or canned fruits. IMHO, just doesn't work. Another caveat, learning about various ingredients can greatly affect the quality and taste of your ice cream. For example, in my area, you cannot find heavy cream that is not ultrapasteurized, a heating process that changes the consistency and flavor, but adds a substantial amount of time to the shelf life. It also invites the addition of chemicals to re-thicken the cream, one being carragenan, which those of us with a sensitivity to MSG cannot tolerate. So, I buy my ingredients carefully. For example, Trader Joe's has two brands of unadulterated cream. The bottom line: If you don't like using raw eggs, skip this book, but if you want simple, great tasting ice cream at home, snap this one up.

I got the book used for about a $1.00, I figured it would have some ice cream recipes and Ben and Jerry's are my favorite ice cream. I noticed to in the listing that their were tips for making ice cream and I'm all out wanting to know everything about the process to have my ice cream taste just like Ben and Jerry's. There are always little facts about recipes that if you understand how things work. I feel your turn out will be 100 percent better than if there is no understanding of what your doing and you just go at it without bothering to really understand what your doing. Example, there are 3 different cream bases to use for recipes. In addition to other ways of making ice cream. The book has tons of variation and it gives the story of Ben and Jerry as though they were right in front of you supporting you making their favorite ice creams. There are so many recipes, even blondes and hot fudge and butterscotch sauces. I know this is going to be a book I use a lot and to think, all for a $1.00. It really was in great condition. If you see used on a listing, there might be a good chance on getting one just like new for so much less. They are pretty defined as to what your getting and you get exactly as it is described. Great Purchase. Happy I got it. I planned on starting with easy to hardest, but with so many, I might not get there, so I will need to start on my favorite ones instead ;-)

Je pensais vraiment que ce livre n'avait d'attirant que la marque Ben & Jerry's mais j'avais absolument tort, Il est EXTRA! J'ai déjà composé qqs glaces et elles sont aussi bonnes en sortant de la turbine qu'après congélation (si on sort la glace 10mn avant consommation). Et ça en soi, c'est déjà une révolution😍 De plus, le livre est tellement bien fait qu'on peut se lancer soi-même dans la création de glaces. Je recommande à 100% ce livre de recettes Ben & Jerry's.

I recently went out and purchased myself a flashy ice cream maker, one of those ones that you don't need to freeze the bowl for, and to justify my purchase, I set out to find the best recipes. I fell down a rabbit hole and purchased 6 ice cream books - I know I went overboard, but I'm so glad I did. I've tried the book with cream cheese instead of egg, and although I love the idea of it, I couldn't get past the cream cheese taste in my strawberry ice cream. I don't mind a strawberry cheesecake ice cream, but I don't want all my ice creams to taste like cheesecake. Then I went and tried a couple of other recipes which seems to be quite standard from another couple of books which called for cooking the custard. Yes, that worked, it took a really long time (especially when you add all the cooling times) and I did need another set of arms to do it right. In the end though, I found the finished product a little too hard and dense when frozen. Along comes Ben and Jerry's book. I wasn't too sure about using raw eggs, so just to be sure, I pasturized my eggs. I did all the eggs in my fridge as aparently it doesn't affect how you use them and now I'm set to make many more batches of ice cream without having to worry. My husbands first request when I got the new machine was banana ice cream - unfortunately I didn't have ripe enough banana's at the time so I couldn't do that straight up, but by the time I got to B&J's they were ready to go. I made this recipe in my thermomix in just 10 minutes! So simple! I made the base first with the whisk in and since everything was still so cold, it went straight into my machine to churn. Once that was in, simply took out the whisk attachment from the thermomix, ad the bananas and other ingredient, wizzed it up and then it was ready to be added to the final 2 minutes of churning. That was it! Soooo simple! After the churn, popped it in the freezer to harden up some more. Today is 48 hours since it's been in the freezer and OMG, it's sooo yummy! I didn't have to take it out of the freezer to soften, it was great to go straight away! I am in love with this process and I won't be looking back. I'll be trying all the amazing looking recipes. Thanks so much B&J!!

I love B&J icecream and it's wonderful that their recipes are accessible here. In bits and pieces you also learn a bit about both Ben and Jerry and the history of how they grew their ethical business. I do have an icecream maker and make icecream semi-regularly but some of the ingredients for the recipes in this book can be a little hard to find in India, so I don't reach for it very often.

The recipes taste exactly like what you get in the store and are surprisingly easy to make

I've already made several ice cream flavors from this book using the sweet cream base recipe, and every batch has turned out amazingly delicious. The recipes are easy to follow, and the results taste far better than I expected from homemade ice cream. The sweet cream base is especially versatile and provides a rich, creamy foundation for experimenting with different flavors. If you enjoy making ice cream at home, this book is a fantastic resource. I'm looking forward to trying many more of the recipes.