Ice Cream

Ingredients:
· 2 cups Whole Milk
· 2 cups Heavy Cream
· 10 Egg Yolks- room temperature
· 10 oz Sugar
· 1 Vanilla Bean

*To make the pistachio ice cream I have pictured, add approximately 3 tablespoons of pistachio paste to step 3 below. I bought my pistachio paste off of amazon.com.

Directions:

1. Prepare an ice bath with a clean bowl on top, so that it is easily accessible when the ice cream base is made. Also, place a fine mesh strainer on top of the bowl. I use a large bowl and fill it with ice. I place a smaller clean bowl on the ice, and rest my strainer on top.

2. Split the vanilla bean length wise and scrape out the seeds. Save both the seeds and bean. 3. Bring the milk, cream, vanilla bean, and seeds just to a boil and remove from heat. Let sit covered for about 20 minutes to allow the flavor to infuse.

3. Whisk the egg yolks and sugar with an electric mixer until they are pale yellow in color. This will take approximately 5-6 minutes.

4. Remove the vanilla bean from the milk mixture. Temper the egg mixture with the milk mixture. This step is very important because you don’t want your egg yolks to scramble. Tempering simply means marrying two temperatures by pouring a little bit of the hot milk at a time into your egg mixture while whisking.

5. Return the mixture to the pot and keep stirring with a wooden spoon on medium heat until the mixture has thickened. The mixture should coat the back of a wooden spoon or spatula. Be sure not to let the mixture get too thick. Take on and off the heat as needed, so it does not overcook. As soon as it’s saucy and coats your wooden spoon, remove it from the heat.

Tip- When the foam starts to disappear, it’s a sign that it’s thickening and almost ready. Every second is important here, and is the key to a successful ice cream. Your mixture should never come to a boil. If it overcooks, the best thing to do is throw it out and start over, because it will be grainy in texture.

6. Strain the mixture onto the bowl over the ice bath. This will remove any graininess that may have formed when tempering your eggs and cooking them on the stove.

7. Continue to keep stirring so that it cools evenly. The custard mixture should then be refrigerated at least 4 hours, and preferably overnight. Don’t skip this step, because it will be the difference between a silky, smooth ice cream and an “icy” ice cream. Note- Once thoroughly chilled, you have Crème Anglaise! You can simply drizzle this over berries for a classy, gourmet dessert.

8. Once the Crème Anglaise is completely chilled, pour into your ice cream maker and follow the manufacturer directions. You can eat it right after it’s churned for a “soft serve” consistency, or freeze to harden.