vanilla-ice-cream

In honor of this week’s Tuesdays with Dorie recipe, Vanilla Ice Cream, Jeff and I decided to stop deliberating and actually BUY AN ICE CREAM MAKER! 

I’d been making ice cream without a machine for months using David Lebovitz’s old-school method, and I was happy with the results, but they took several hours.

So, we grabbed one of this particular home store’s ever-present coupons with visions of sugar cones dancing in our heads.

We were giddy.

We walked up to the display of ice cream makers, and there it was: The One. The same one we’d lusted over last year. And it was $10 MORE.

In the words of Our Lady Oprah, what I know for sure is that the Lebovitz method works.

See this lovely, creamy, very vanilla ice cream?

I followed Dorie’s recipe to the point where it required a machine, and then I chilled it in a bowl over an ice bath and slipped it into the freezer. After that, it was all my meaty biceps, a big wooden spoon and time.

The chocolate pieces are Trader Joe’s mini peanut butter cups I stirred in at the last minute – before I could give in to the temptation of lining them up on the counter and snorting them.

So, instead of instant gratification with the $50+ machine, we spent the afternoon at home, slowly tending our ice cream and wrapping up “Torchwood: Children of Earth.”

It was a fair trade.

Vanilla Ice Cream

Adapted from Dorie Greenspan’s “Baking: From My Home to Yours”

Makes about 1 quart

  • 2 cups whole milk
  • 2 cups heavy cream
  • 1 moist, plump vanilla bean, split and scraped, or 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
  • 6 large egg yolks
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  1. Bring milk and cream to a boil in a large heavy-bottomed saucepan. If you are using a vanilla bean, put the seeds and pod into the pan, cover, and set aside for 30 minutes, then bring the milk and cream back to a boil before continuing. If you are using vanilla extract, wait until later to add it.
  2. Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, whisk the yolks and sugar together until very well blended and just slightly thickened. Still whisking, drizzle in about one-third of the hot liquid. (This will temper, or warm, the eggs so they won’t curdle.)
  3. Whisking all the while, slowly pour in the remaining liquid.
  4. Pour the custard back into the pan, and cook over medium heat, stirring without stopping, until the custard thickens slightly and coats the back of a spoon. The custard should reach 170 to 180 degrees F.
  5. Immediately remove the pan from the heat, and strain the custard into a 2-quart measuring cup or clean heatproof bowl.
  6. Discard the vanilla pod, or if you are using vanilla extract, stir it in now.
  7. Refrigerate the custard until chilled before churning it into the ice cream.
  8. Scrape the chilled custard in the bowl of an ice cream maker, and churn according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Pack the ice cream into a container and freeze it for at least 2 hours, until it is firm enough to scoop.