Rum raisin ice cream (twice)

This week I made two batches of rum raisin ice cream, for a couple of reasons:

• My husband came home late, craving a bit of ice cream, only to find out that my son had finished off batch #1.
• Batch #1's raisins were overly boozy, to my taste, so I wanted to try again, this time soaking the raisins for only as long as it took the milk-sugar-egg mix to chill.

Note: The booziness of the raisins did not disturb my husband or son, in the least. I, however, thought the rum in the batch #1's raisins overwhelmed the gentle rum flavor of the ice cream.

Soaking the raisins for 2 days made a little of batch #1 go a long way.

Both batches used The Perfect Scoop's recipe, but batch #1 followed a very relaxed schedule, which resulted in the raisins soaking in rum for almost two days. I'd read a recommendation somewhere that 3 days of soaking was even better, but wow do I disagree.

For batch #2, I started making the raisins and the milk-sugar-egg mix at 9 a.m., and the mix was in the fridge before 9:30. I meant to churn it that afternoon, but it ended up happening the next morning. However, I did stop soaking the raisins that afternoon.

The recipe has you pour off the liquid from the raisins and then add rum, if necessary, to get 3 tablespoons of rum to flavor the mix. Adding rum was necessary for both batches. For batch #1, only about 4 teaspoons (1-1/3 tablespoons) poured off the raisins. It made for an incredibly yummy ice cream mix, though. For batch #2, I still had to add rum, but not as much—the ratio of pure rum to rummy juice was more or less reversed.

Batch #2's rum-raisin juice mixture

Both batches took much longer than usual to start freezing because of the alcohol in the rum. I churned both batches until they were to soft-soft serve consistency, then mixed in the raisins, which softened the mixture further. I might have churned for up to 40 minutes and the ice cream never clumped; usually I churn for 20 minutes and the ice cream has started sticking to the container.

After 24 hours in the freezer, batch #1 had a very nice consistency—solid yet creamy and easy to scoop out with a regular spoon.

After 24 hours in the freezer, batch #1 set up nicely.

However, the raisins were so incredibly rum-filled, I couldn't taste the ice cream. Boo.

Batch #2 was more balanced, although my son thought the ice cream itself tasted boozier. Perhaps that's because the raisins didn't overwhelm it, or because the ice cream had less raisin juice in the rum mix, due to the shorter soaking time.

Batch #2 was scoopable but still very soft after a few hours.

The upshot: I'm not a big fan of raisins, but this was a good recipe. I might try it again, soaking the raisins for 2 days but not including them in the ice cream. The raisins (and maybe some toasted pecans) could instead be on the side for people to add.