Orchard House Creamery cows’ diet is primarily grass.

This week’s post is from JoAnna Bleasdale of Orchard House Creamery. From their
website: “Ben and JoAnna Bleasdale own and operate this small farm in rural Spencer, TN, a mere 10 minutes from Fall Creek Falls State Park. They pour their passion for cattle and love of serving people into each jar of milk that leaves the farm.”  They share this milk via herd shares. What’s a herd share? See the herd share section on their website for more information, including contact info so you can sign up for one.

It’s a hot week again in Chattanooga and a great time to make ice cream. Thanks, JoAnna for sharing your recipe!

Folks, I made ice cream for the first time this week. Yes, I know. I’m a dairy farmer, how has it taken me 7 years to make ice cream?! Well, mostly because I was a scared-y cat. I made every excuse in the book: We don’t have enough cream, we do have enough cream, we don’t have any cream, it will be yucky. Nope. All of those are a lie.

I actually set out to make pudding. Yes, pudding. I was double checking my recipe and saw at the bottom, the author of the book from which the recipe comes wrote a note saying,  “When using this recipe for ice cream, remember that it will expand as it freezes.” …hmmm… So…I can make ice cream?

Okay. This is exciting because, 1. I already know how to make wicked good pudding. (if you tried my banana pudding recipe, you know it’s good.) 2. This recipe doesn’t require cream, just milk.

For those of you that missed my recipe for raw milk pudding, here it is:

Raw Milk Pudding

Ingredients:

2 ½ cups raw milk
½ cup of sugar (use brown sugar for butterscotch flavor)
Pinch of salt
1 egg
4 tbsp cornstarch
1 tbsp butter
1 tsp vanilla

*Optional: 2 heaping tbsp sweetened cocoa powder (for chocolate favor)

1. Mix 2 cups of the milk, the sugar and the salt in a saucepan. Heat slowly.
2. While the milk mixture is heating, beat the egg. Add to milk mixture, and to the scalding point, stirring constantly.
3. Dissolve the cornstarch in the remaining ½ cup of milk, and add to the scalding milk, again, stirring constantly. Stir until thickened and remove from heat.
4. Add the butter and vanilla.
5. For flavored puddings, mix in the cocoa with the sugar before adding the milk, or substitute brown sugar for white sugar for a butterscotch flavor.

The only thing I might consider leaving out if you’re planning to make ice cream would be the cornstarch. You don’t really need the mixture to thicken into pudding. You just need the egg and sugar to mix properly with the milk. Let the mixture cool completely before making into ice cream.

I have a Kitchenaid mixer with an ice cream maker bowl attachment. I poured my pudding mix into the bowl and turn it on. It made absolutely delicious, creamy, perfect ice cream. Could not be happier with the result.

Wanna give it a try? We’ve got extra milk right now! Add a half gallon to your order this week (or every week!) and try this recipe out. It’s super delicious and super easy!