Simple Pleasures
I love to make ice cream in the summer. And the winter. Just about any time at all, really. I’m a sucker for its creamy, rich, frosty deliciousness. Pretty much any flavor will do to satisfy my craving when it hits. Number One Ice Cream is my easy recipe base for all my ice cream experiments.
What's In This Stuff
The options for flavors are as varied as your imagination. Cone or cup? Dairy, non-dairy or sorbet? All fair game. And if you make your own ice cream you can control the amount of sugar to add. Bonus!
Additionally, your own homemade ice cream will have low or no saturated fats and preservatives. You get to remove all the nasties that you’d find in a bucket of cream from the local market. What’s not to love about making it yourself? Trust me, the effort is sooo worth it.
Mixing It Up
I make ice cream using a very simple Cuisinart ice cream maker. I’ve had this model for several years. It’s easy to use and has very few parts, making it a breeze to clean up. I’ve had a few ice cream machines throughout my life. In fact, my kids got me one as a gift for Mother’s Day one year. In all honesty, they gave it to me in anticipation of me making them a batch of ice cream as a Mother’s Day treat…for them!
Every time I make a new flavor of ice cream I start with this same base. Once you have it down, you’ll find it’s very easy to gather the ingredients for your recipe each time. With this number one ice cream recipe as the base, you’re covered. From here you can create, adjust, alter and omit to your heart’s content. Of course, you can always add nothing to it and dig in to the sweet cream goodness of this ice cream base just as it is.
Number One Ice Cream
Equipment
- Ice Cream Maker
Ingredients
- 5 large eggs, separated, use yolks only save the egg whites for an omelet later
- 1 cup whole organic milk
- 2 cups organic heavy cream
- ⅔ cup raw organic sugar Use less sugar if desired. Especially if your add-in flavors are fruit or chocolate with added sugars.
- 1 Tbsp pure vanilla extract
- 1½ tsp salt
- 2 Tbsp bourbon or vodka Tip: Adding alcohol to homemade ice cream lowers its freezing point. Added alcohol increases the proportion of liquid syrup to solid fat and ice, which will make your ice cream soft and scoopable, not frozen solid. You can add more than 2 tablespoons if you wish but adding more than 5-6 tablespoons will cause your ice cream to not freeze much at all and remain soupy.
Instructions
- Whisk egg yolks together in a medium bowl or large 4 cup glass measuring cup until creamy and bright. Set aside.
- In a heavy bottomed sauce pan add the milk, heavy cream, sugar, vanilla and salt.
- Stir on medium low until sugar is dissolved and milk is just beginning to get hot. Do not let it boil or create a film on the top.
- Note: If you've never made a custard before, you might wonder about "tempering." This recipe is a custard which means it has eggs in it. It is not a vegan ice cream. When eggs get hot, they cook. We DO NOT want our eggs to scramble. We DO want them to become silky smooth and help the hot cream become a thick rich custard. Tempering is the process of very slowly warming the eggs to the temperature of the hot milk without scrambling them.
- Temper the egg yolks by very slowly drizzling or ladling 1 cup of the hot milk mixture into the egg yolks, whisking constantly. Once the milk and eggs are fully incorporated, slowly add the tempered egg and milk mixture back into the saucepan of remaining hot milk.
- Turn the heat up to medium and stir constantly until the custard coats the back of a spoon.
- Turn off the heat and allow to cool. Once ice cream is cool stir in alcohol, if using. This is also the time to stir in any flavors that you want to add. (Ideas: Chopped strawberries, peaches, bananas, berries, cream cheese, chocolate, cocoa, chocolate chips, espresso powder, macha, nuts, marshmallows. The options are endless.)
- Cover the pot and put it into the refrigerator. (I like to do this to continue to slowly drop the temperature of the custard. This keeps ice crystals from forming too fast and making your ice cream icy. Slow chilling before churning makes for a creamier cream.) Allow to chill for an hour or overnight.
- Pour the chilled cream mixture into prepared ice cream maker. Churn according to manufacturer instructions.
- Scoop into bowls and be happy.