Homemade Ice Cream

When I was a kid growing up in the Australian bush; to get some homemade ice cream was an absolute treat. Usually it was reserved for our Sunday lunch which was always a special meal as we often used to have our Church Minister come for lunch after the church service finished. It was a long way back into town but I think he really just enjoyed Mums homemade ice cream too with the special hot chocolate sauce she used to make!

We had all the necessary ingredients on the property like plenty of cream and eggs etc but our poor Mother had to use an egg beater to mix everything up because we didn't have any electricity to run a Mixmaster or electric beater.

We never had any electric power on at our property until Dad got the 240volt diesel engine in 1964.

Things like electric fridges, electric jugs, vacuum cleaners, toasters didn't exist at our place until we were all well into our teens. When it came time to whip the cream and sugar for the homemade ice cream before it was put into the old kerosene fridge to cool first before it had its final whipping, meant poor Mum had to use a lot of energy on that old battered egg beater!

Once the ice cream mix in the old kerosene fridge had cooled off and was about half frozen, Mum would take it out and give it a final whipping. This final whipping used to make it so smooth and creamy. Sometimes for a treat she would add some glace cherries into it but we all preferred the hot chocolate sauce she used to make for us to pour over and melt into the frozen icecream.

The only flavour available when Mum made homemade ice cream was vanilla but the hot chocolate sauce made up for any chocolate cravings or preferences we never had.

Mums homemade ice cream was always special and just thinking back to those days makes me happy again remembering the happy laughter and all that love that was put into each whipping of the icecream.