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Have just made some strawberry ice cream with the last of the strawberries - and it tastes delicious. This may seem a silly question - but how long would it last, if I tried to forget about it?!!  (It's made with eggs and cream - I can post the recipe if anybody else would like to try it!)

Made without ice cream maker - why didn't I try this before?

You have GOT to post this recipe!!!  PLEEEEEEEEEEEEASEEE!
Twinkletoes

Two cups of strawberries
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
2 cups whipping cream
1 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla

Chill the strawberries overnight in the lemon juice and a quarter cup of sugar.

Beat eggs, add 3/4 cup of sugar, beat again. Beat in milk and vanilla. Add strawberries - I gave it another quick beating with the blender at this point, because I didn't want too many big lumps left.  Then stir in whipping cream. 

Freeze - don't forget to stir frequently. 

But how long would it last if not consumed tonight?

Last? Surely as long as you wish, so long as it's at -18C or below & hasn't thawed on the table?

OK - but I'd heard that homemade ice cream doesn't keep as long,whether because of the eggs or the cream I don't know. So in theory it should keep alright until Christmas? 

you are right, there is a more limited time span with home made ice creams especially the 'custard' based ones but that is good 'cos it just means there is no commercial preservatives involved and that's the main reason

if making now for xmas then you will be ok

they are usually too nice to last long anyway  ;D

In my house, homemade ice cream lasts about 1 day!!!!!!!:-)

Yummy

Kathi

Interesting - Eggs freeze fine, so does Cream, so...............??

I think it is because the ice cream is actually 'cooked' first so what you are freezing is a different content - I'm referring to the custard based ice creams here not others that are not cooked

the actual science? probably something to do with biotics during cooking  ???

Generally speaking, you can expect to store homemade ice cream for up to 2 months maximum. Commercial ice cream keeps longer because of the way it’s produced, often including preservatives and/or stabilisers.

Homemade ice cream is always best eaten on the day it’s made in my opinion. The quality of taste, texture and colour usually starts to deteroriate after just 4 weeks  storage in the freezer. The simple adage is “Fresh = Best”.

The most common problem when ice creams and other frozen desserts spend too long in the freezer is the texture changes and if not covered properly (ideally with clingfilm on the surface, then covered with a lid), they can get icy and pick up other flavors from the freezer.

If they do get icy, most sorbets and sherbets can be melted down and re-churned, as can ice creams made without eggs. But I find custard-based ice creams don't re-freeze as successfully, so don't let those sit around too long.

If you've used fresh ingredients such as beautifully ripe strawberries straight from your plot, the ice cream will have that 'just picked' flavor which quickly diminishes once the ice cream has been stored.

Also it can sometimes be a little too hard to serve. This can be for a variety of reasons including:

Some of your ingredients may not have been cold enough when added to your ice cream recipe mixture (eg. anything you’ve had to heat/cook before adding)

The ice crystals (important in all ice cream making) may have been too big after mixing. …
Faster mixing/churning = smaller ice crystals
Smaller ice crystals = smoother ice cream

The amount and/or type of sugar used in the recipe. Concentrated sugar depresses the freezing point of ice cream, too little an amount of sugar in the recipe makes it too soft and too much makes it too hard. I've also found that each recipe can vary in how soft or hard the ice cream is after freezing, even if the same amount of sugar is used in each recipe. This is where other factors in this list can have a bearing.

Alcohol (such as in a white wine sorbet) is known to lowering the freezing point of anything it’s mixed into.

Gollywhiskers!

Alcohol certainly lowers my freezing point!

 ;D  ;D

it's quite scary freezing alcohol cos as it warms up in the stomach this seems to intensify the effects  :o