The key to good vanilla ice cream is a good vanilla bean. The bean you use should be flexible - if it breaks in 2 when you bend it, the bean is past the point where you want to use it. The key to a good custard is to relax and let everything come together in its own time, which is easy when the whole kitchen smells of vanilla.
Ingredients (makes 1 litre ice cream)
- 1 + 1/4 cups 2% milk (300 ml)
- 1 vanilla bean
- 4 large egg yolks
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon cornstarch
- 1 + 1/4 cups whipping cream (300 ml)
Instructions for Vanilla Ice Cream
Massage the vanilla bean and then split down the middle with a knife and scrape out the small seeds from inside. To create the custard base for the ice cream combine 2% milk and both the small seeds and the vanilla bean pod in a saucepan. Bring to just below a simmer.
Put a heat-proof bowl on a towel or pot holder to keep it from slipping. In this bowl whisk the egg yolks, sugar and cornstarch. Keep whisking and slowly add small amounts of the hot milk to the egg mixture, continuing until all the milk is stirred into the egg mixture. Pour the mixture back into the saucepan.
Heat the mixture in the saucepan slowly over medium-low heat while constantly stirring with a wooden spoon until it thickens and coats the back of a wooden spoon. This will take 4-6 minutes.
Strain the mixture, remove the vanilla bean pod, cover the surface with cling-wrap and refrigerate overnight.
Add the whipping cream to the custard and mix well.
Start ice cream maker and pour mixture into it.
Run the ice cream maker until it stops or moves very little.
After the ice cream has been in the freezer for about 4 hours, spoon the ice cream into bowls and enjoy! Remember that home made ice cream needs to be eaten within about a week of making it.