The Sweet Childhood Treat Carla Hall Says Changed Her Life

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Everyone enjoys a nice sweet treat every now and again, and celebrity chefs like Nashville native Carla Hall are no exception. She's well known for her culinary career and her many successful cookbooks and children's books, but one fact you probably didn't know about Carla Hall is her favorite dessert: homemade ice cream. It's deceptively simple but incredibly versatile, and you may already have everything you need for it right in your own kitchen.

Hall loves from-scratch ice cream not just because it's incredibly tasty, either (though it certainly is). It has serious sentimental value for her, as she explained in an interview with sister site Tasting Table: "So my grandmothers would both make ice cream from scratch and we would churn it in the old-fashioned churn. So we had to work," she said, connecting it to one of her first joyful memories connected to food. "And the payoff was we got this amazing ice cream." With happy memories like that, it's not hard to see why Carla Hall said she grew so interested in recreating those flavors and experiences in her culinary career.

If you want to make homemade ice cream for yourself, you don't need an antique butter churn like Carla Hall and her grandmothers used. You just need a little extra equipment, like a special attachment for an electric mixer or perhaps a tabletop ice cream maker. Recipes will vary, but you'll generally need heavy cream, milk, sugar, salt, and flavoring depending on what sort of ice cream you're trying to make. Some components of your setup, like bowls, will likely need to be put in the freezer a few hours ahead of time.

Of course, this is far from the only way to make homemade ice cream. As we said, recipes will vary. Some don't even require churning at all. As for serving, you can pair it with peach cobbler like Carla Hall does, or experiment with different flavors. Vanilla and chocolate are classics, but almost anything works as an ice cream flavor. Try your favorite foods or splurge on something fancy like fruity ruby chocolate for a special occasion.

Static Media owns and operates Foodie and Tasting Table.