Nothing screams “summer” more than a refreshing bowl of homemade ice cream. I have been making ice cream for a few years now, and I was never really happy with the way my homemade ice cream froze.
My frozen treats always contained too many ice crystals, and would freeze to be half solid, and half liquid. I could never get that creamy, soft ice cream texture desired (Fun Fact of the Day: there is no word for “texture” in the Italian language). I am pleased to announce that I have finally figured out how to make homemade ice cream creamy and dreamy (that sounded pretty cheesy, but it rhymed).
This vanilla ice cream is rich, creamy, soft, and exploding with flavor. You can always leave out the vanilla bean, but the ice cream will have 10 times the flavor if it’s put in. If the vanilla beans are left out, then add an extra tablespoon of vanilla extract.
Vanilla Bean Ice Cream
- 4 cups Heavy Cream
- 1 cup Whole Milk
- 4 Egg Yolks
- 1 tbsp. Vanilla Extract
- 2 Vanilla Beans
- 3/4 cup Superfine Sugar (you can use regular granulated sugar, and grind it in a blender)
- 2 tbsp. Honey
Pour the heavy cream and milk into a medium sized saucepan.
Cut the vanilla beans lengthwise down the middle, and scrap out the seeds inside of the beans into the milk. Add the bean pods to the milk as well.
Add the superfine sugar and honey to the milk and stir a few times.
Beat the egg yolks in a small bowl and set aside.
Heat the milk over a low temperature stirring constantly until the sugar dissolves completely, and little bubbles begin to form around the edge.
Once the milk is heated, add 1 cup of the hot milk to the bowl of yolks and stir. Keep gradually adding milk to the yolks until you have added about 1/3 of the entire milk mixture. Add the yolk-milk mixture back into the saucepan of milk.
Heat the ice cream base over very low heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens and can coat the back of a spoon. Be sure to stir constantly and not overheat, or your ice cream will turn to scrambled eggs (it has happened countless times!).
Once thickened, take the mixture off the stove and strain it into a bowl, discarding the bean pods. Let it cool to room temperature.
Add the vanilla extract to the ice cream base and stir. Place in the refrigerator and leave it to chill for at least 3 hours.
The chilled ice cream base.
Freeze the ice cream according to instructions from the manufacturer of your ice cream machine. Buon appetito!
