Gear

I love gear. I'm not a handy person, but I can still entertain myself walking the aisles of a hardware store, looking at all the variations on gaskets or copper pipe fittings or other beautiful but functional objects.

So of course I'm into hardware that's handy for making ice cream. I just got an expensive new Zeroll scoop. It works really well, but although it ostensibly serves 2 ounces, the portion seems about as big my original scoop's. So I'll just have to get a 1 oz. Zeroll. Yes, some scoops are available in multiple sizes.

A 2 oz. Zeroll scoop (left):
Now my first choice, supplanting
the Good Cook "Smart Scoop" (right).

For containers, I love the Tovolo Glide-A-Scoop tubs. They fit in my freezer, they're easy to pack into a cooler bag, and their long shape makes scooping easy. Their insulation might also help keep the ice cream from crystallizing, but we haven't kept any ice cream around long enough to know for sure.

Tovolo containers:
Work great and fit in my overstuffed freezer.

Not all of the hardware works out. I bought an egg separator that not only isn't foolproof, but takes longer to use than separating eggs by hand. And I found out the hard way that some plastic is not meant to be frozen. Even plastic that's meant for the freezer can crack if you aren't careful. (I'll get another Tovolo container and try to be gentler with it.)

I cracked this Tovolo container
when I pounded down the lid. Oops.

Sometimes I fall in love with something that seems silly but is surprisingly useful, like a 3/4 cup measure.

Ice cream recipes often call for 3/4 cup of an ingredient.
Really.

And then there's one of my favorite souvenirs ever, a stainless steel citrus juicer that I bought while visiting my brother. Unlike Fran's dark hot chocolate mix (a souvenir from Seattle that happens to be in a heavy, pipe-bomb-like container) the juicer caused no problems with airport security. 

Beautiful and useful.

Other hardware is fun but not at all essential. A Metric Wonder Cup can be useful for measuring small amounts of ingredients, as well as for getting every last drop of viscous ingredients such as molasses and honey. A microplane is handy for grating citrus zest. The two plastic spatulas in the picture below are pretty good for unloading the churning bucket, but they aren't perfect.

   

I bet a narrow plastic/silicone spatula would be great at getting the ice cream off the churning blade... Time to shop!