For me, homemade ice cream is superior to homemade.
I use fruit from the farmers’ markets or our garden. I only buy ripe, in season fruit. I use high quality chocolate, Valrhona or Callebut. I use Clover brand pasteurized cream. I like that it’s not ultra-pasteurized as, in my view, ultra pasteurized cream makes the consistency chalky. A commercial ice cream with these ingredients would be costly.
I can make any flavor. I’ve made wonderful flavors that I can’t imagine being sold commercially: fig leaf/honey, blood orange/toasted black sesame.
I will gladly admit when I find the commercial version of something to be better and the homemade to not be worth the trouble, but I don’t see how this can be said for ice cream.
Not only can you get any flavor you want at home, you can eat it when freshly churned which is a really nice bonus.
Even though homemade ice cream isn’t cheap, it can be cheaper than premium ice creams, too.
If you tell me I can’t beat a really good ice cream shop I can concede that (though it’s definitely more expensive), but stuff at the supermarket? Even the good stuff isn’t better than homemade.
Homemade vanilla ice cream in particular has more intense flavor than commercial.
And I also don’t care for some of the “premium” brands and their flavor selections.
I agree. There are many things that I don’t find worth making at home, but homemade ice cream is better than store bought to me.
Some of the things I don’t make at home:
Bagels. I live in Los Angeles, CA where I can buy good bagels.
Peanut butter. I tried making it at home. Store bought is less expensive and tastes just as good to me.
Eclairs, cream puffs, etc. We are a family of two and most recipes make twelve. With my adoration of creamy desserts, I would eat way too many.
Soft pretzels. I love them; my husband doesn’t. Most recipes make twelve which I couldn’t eat before they went stale. Also, I try to reduce my consumption of single use plastic. The recipes I’ve read state that you must use gloves to dip the pretzels in lye then throw the gloves away.
Butter. I can get high quality butter at a fraction of the price it would cost me to churn my own.
Mayonnaise. I don’t eat enough to finish a batch before it isn’t safe to eat. I buy Kewpie from a Japanese market. MSG for the win.
Flour/meals. I can buy quality flour, cornmeal, etc. at a fraction of the cost to make it.
If you mean stuff you buy from a major manufacturer, like Breyers or Blue Bunny or Turkey Hill, etc., then I generally agree with you, although there are exceptions (most notably Graeter’s)
But if you mean “commercial” as in ice cream from a scoop shop (like McConnell’s, Jeni’s or Salt & Straw, or even very localized one-store shops, like Egloo in NYC or Wanderlust in LA, then no.
In my experience, homemade is better, every time. The best example I can think of is a fresh mint ice cream, served for dessert at Alo. We had made a fresh mint ice cream at home just the week prior, and drizzled some dark chocolate through it to provide some crunch and a pop of flavour. Alo came in second place, and it would have, even without the chocolate. I have an old cuisinart unit with the spinning, frozen bucket. It works like a charm.
Chiming in (late) for homemade, as well. So fresh, and and if desired, can be made with very few ingredients (always a plus in my book). The flavor profile can be whatever you want it to be.
I keep thinking back to what OP mentioned in another thread about the economy of Philly-style ice creams (no eggs). In this case (or in the case of frozen yogurt), and if you can score inexpensive (or free) fruit, you can make a hella good frozen treat for not much money.
Or David L’s chocolate sorbet, which creates an incredibly satisfying chocolate experience (and I was SUPER SURE I wouldn’t feel this way until I tried it) with just 6 oz of bittersweet chocolate and 3/4 c cocoa powder; no eggs and no dairy. I mean… it’s sorcery. Cheap sorcery!
