I Scream, You Scream: Ice Cream

For Ben's birthday last year, Elizabeth got him an ice cream maker.  We had been talking about getting an ice cream maker for a while, so we were excited to get this bad boy.

We had a somewhat disastrous first foray into ice cream with an avocado ice cream that didn't initially set (possibly because the core was not fully frozen - yay impatience!) and then froze like a solid block in the freezer.  Also, it tasted kinda bland.

This vanilla ice cream we made, though, was SO rich and creamy, Elizabeth could feel the fat being added onto her Insanity abs.


Vanilla Ice Cream (thank you Joy of Baking)

2 cups half and half
1/2 vanilla bean
5 large egg yolks
2/3 cup sugar

1. Add the half and half and vanilla bean to a small saucepan over medium-high heat.  When the half and half begins to boil and foam, remove from heat.  Remove the vanilla bean from the half and half, and scrape the inside of the bean out and add this back to the half and half.

2. In a stainless steel bowl, beat the egg yolks and sugar (we used a hand mixer) for about 2 minutes, or until light and fluffy.  Gradually add the half and half mixture to the egg yolk mixture (keep mixing and add slowly so the eggs don't curdle).

3. Place the bowl over a saucepan with simmering water, and heat, stirring constantly, to 170ºF, or until the custard has thickened to the point where it coats the back of a spoon.

4. Remove the bowl from the heat and keep stirring for a couple of minutes.  Let cool to room temperature, and then refrigerate overnight.

5. The next day, add the custard to your ice cream maker according to its instructions.

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The ice cream is very rich and pretty awesome - better than anything we've bought at the store.  Obviously vanilla ice cream is pretty basic, but now that we have it under our belts, we can move onto bigger and better recipes.  And perhaps we'll return to avocado ice cream in the future.

C & D