[JRandomFreeper]

Ice cream was on the list this week. It's one of the darn few that I actually use a recipe for.

1 quart of heavy cream
1 pint of regular milk (maybe, if it's around)
8 egg yolks
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla (extract if need be, or use 1 vanilla bean, parted out)

Heat cream and milk (if using milk) until at boiling. Be careful, or it will boil over and burn.

Mix egg yolks with sugar using a whisk. It will be thick.

SLOWLY mix in small amounts of hot cream/milk to egg/sugar mixture. If you don't do this very slowly, and carefully, you will wind up with scrambled eggs.

When cream is fully incorporated, return to heat and keep stirring with whisk. The point is to make a fairly thick custard (it will coat the back of a spoon easily).

When that is done, take off the heat, strain and cool.

Make ice cream as directed by your machine (I use a machine... it's easier).

This is the most difficult recipe I make, because it's very easy to scramble the egg yolks instead of make a custard.

/johnny

[Jamestown1630]

I need an ice cream maker! Does anyone have a recommendation?

When I was a kid, ice cream was a once-per-month thing. I remember we would have our ice cream at night, while watching ‘Candid Camera’ on TV; and get cold from it and rush to bed when the show was over ;-)

(Store-bought ice cream today is nothing like it was back then - or maybe it’s another one of those first food experiences that you can’t re-create.)

-JT

[azishot]

What a wonderful recipe! Now I REALLY have to get an ice cream maker. My parents owned a restaurant when I was a kid and my dad made his own ice cream. It was nothing like the stuff you buy. How I miss that.

[Rodamala]

We always made ice cream (actually it was always frozen custard) in the winter because we had plenty of snow to pack the bucket of the big ice cream maker with.

[SaraJohnson]

I don’t make it, but I LOVE homemade ice cream. My mom make it for us.

[NorthstarMom]

We just eat it raw, egg yolks and all, as that is what my “healthy” recipe calls for. I’ve haven’t had much success at any custard as some of my yolks always cook in pieces.

Vanilla Ice Cream

3 egg yolks
1/2 cup maple syrup (the real stuff)
1 Tbls vanilla extract
1 Tbls arrowroot powder
3 cups heavy cream (raw if you can get it)

Beat the egg yolks and blend in remaining ingredients. Pour into ice cream maker and process according to instructions.

We sometimes have it for breakfast :)

[Grammy]

Johnny, I have learned one thing from all my baking years. When you mix egg yolks and sugar, move on to the next step promptly. If you leave sugar and yolks together for any amount of time, the sugar cooks the yolks and you end up with scrambled yolks.

So, for novices, the recipe should be followed as written.... heat milk first, then mix the sugar and yolks and then begin tempering the yolk mixture with the hot milk.

The other thing I learned about my machine is that I must freeze the container in my deep freeze. The regular freezer didn’t allow it to stay cold enough long enough to finish the job.

Hmmmm..... all this chat has given me a taste for home made ice cream. May have to make a batch and make a very happy Mr G.

[greeneyes]

I bought an ice cream mixer, and made one batch of ice cream. The next time I tried to make it, I couldn’t get the darned thing to churn correctly.

I often just make a much smaller batch, because the freezer is too full to store it, we can’t eat a big batch in one day, and of course the issue with the machine.

So I put a couple of quart bags sealed into a gallon zip lock bag. Fill up the bag with ice cream salt and ice. Shake the bag and massage it, add more ice and salt as needed.

It takes less than 10 minutes to freeze to DQ soft serve stage. Enough for two or three servings.