Do you ever crave ice cream? To me that’s almost a silly question. I know I do for sure and especially as the weather gets warmer.

I recently decided to make a batch of ice cream at home. I don’t have an ice cream maker so I opted for my mom’s old recipe which doesn’t not call for the use of one and it turned out really good. But I wanted to also try a recipe in which an ice cream maker was used to see how the ice cream would come out without it. I learned a couple of lessons. I needed to use whole milk instead of 1% and once in the freezer, I needed to stir it every 90 minutes, about three times. This helped make the ice cream more creamy.

So I urge you to try this recipe, whether or not you have an ice cream maker.  It’s delicious by itself but have it with some berries or, for a more decadent treat, with a chocolate cookie and you’ll be in heaven!

Ingredients

• 10 oz whole milk (or you can use 2% milk)
• 10 oz heavy cream
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 vanilla bean
• 4 egg yolks
• 110 g sugar (1/2 cup)

Directions

Pour the milk, heavy cream and vanilla extract into a pot. Split the vanilla bean, scrape out all the seeds and add them along with the bean itself to the pot.  Heat the milk mixture until it just boils and remove the bean.

In a bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and the sugar. Once it turns off white, add just a little of the hot milk mixture and whisk well to combine.

Slowly add the rest of the milk mixture while whisking to avoid the eggs from cooking. Then pour it back into the pot.  Reduce the heat and keep stirring until the mixture reaches about 185 degrees F (not boiling).

Pour the mixture into a bowl and let it cool slightly on the countertop and then in the refrigerator for about an hour. Now you can pour it into an ice cream maker and follow the manufacturer’s instructions, or you can pour it into a freezer safe container and put it in the freezer.

If you don’t use an ice cream maker, stir the ice cream every 90 minutes three times.  Then leave it set and enjoy when frozen!