Sometimes, there are simply no realistic possibilities to make ice cream “from scratch” – you may lack the necessary time, ingredients and/or the technical appliances necessary.
Should this be the case, please consider the following “quick fixes” that will allow you to “make” ice cream anyway:
* Use commercial ice cream as a ready-made base; add your own flavouring/mix-ins
Buy the best premium ice cream available (vanilla usually being the preferred, most versatile flavour), let the package soften a bit and then stir in your own preferred flavouring. Return the ice cream to the freezer and later present the outcome as “your own” creation. This half-fabricated method works particularly well with more solid mix-ins such as cookie crumbles, chocolate chips, rhum-soaked raisins or the likes.
If time permits, just as when making ice cream the “normal” way, do try to pre-cool the mix-ins, so the re-freezing of the ice cream takes less time.
* Frozen yoghurt on the go – Get the best fruit yoghurt available to you and use it as ready-made base
Depending on the ingredients of your yoghurt (low-fat or what have you), this might in fact be a quite healthy option! Cool the yoghurt in the fridge for a while, then pour it straight into your ice cream machine. Churn until ice cream-like, and still quite soft. The delicious result should best be enjoyed as soon as its finished, since storing it in a freezer is likely to turn it rock-solid.
* Need to make a quick sorbet? Try a base of ready-made concentrated sweetened juice!
Since sorbet largely is a mixture of syrup and flavouring, you could try to replace a proper syrup with concentrated sweetened juice – after all, such juice in concentrated form is basically syrup+flavouring combined, so you are not so far off the mark as it may seem with this one.
Simple sugar syrup for sorbets ready for (almost) immediate use – follow the path of the hurried bartender!
Skip the boiling together of water and sugar prescribed in most ice cream recipes and literature. Just mix water and sugar together without heating, and shake/stir/whisk until the sugar has dissolved.
