When it comes to ice cream, I like my intense flavours. That being said, for my first venture into making it myself, I decided to stick to something simple and classic. You can't go wrong with a decent vanilla ice cream, but when made with real vanilla beans and only a handful of other ingredients, the flavour far exceeds anything you can buy in a tub. Dollop on top of warm chocolate cookies, pancakes or eat by the spoonful straight out of the jar. I halved the recipe I found here, and loved the tips on how to reuse your vanilla pods.
INGREDIENTS
makes approx. 500ml
125ml (1/2cup) whole milk
75g sugar
1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise
250ml (1 cup) heavy cream*
3 egg yolks
1 tsp pur vanilla extract
*I used double cream, but in future will use regular cream so it won't be as heavy.
METHOD
1. Heat the milk, salt, and sugar in a saucepan. Scrape the seeds from the vanilla bean into the milk with a paring knife, then add the bean pod to the milk. Cover, remove from heat, and infuse for one hour.
2. To make the ice cream, set up an ice bath by placing a 1L bowl in a larger bowl partially filled with ice and water. Set a strainer over the top of the smaller bowl and pour the cream into the bowl.
3. In a separate bowl, stir together the egg yolks. Rewarm the milk then gradually pour some of the milk into the yolks, whisking constantly as you pour. Scrape the warmed yolks and milk back into the saucepan.
4. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly and scraping the bottom with a heat-resistant spatula, until the custard thickens enough to coat the spatula.
5. Strain the custard into the heavy cream. Stir over the ice until cool, add the vanilla extract, then refrigerate to chill thoroughly. Preferably overnight.
6. Remove the vanilla bean and freeze the custard in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions.
Note: Used vanilla beans can be rinsed and dried, then stored in a bin of sugar. That sugar can be used for baking and, of course, for future ice cream making.
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