Vanilla Ice Cream
A rich custard base, with or without an ice-cream machine
- Makes
- about 1 liter
- Hands-on
- Total
- Level
- Some skill
Real vanilla custard ice cream: dense, smooth and scoopable, flecked with seeds. A machine gives the silkiest result, but the no-machine method below makes very good ice cream with a fork and a freezer. Start the day before.
Ingredients
- 500 mlheavy (double) cream (2 cups + 2 tbsp)
- 250 mlwhole milk (1 cup + 1 tbsp)
- 1vanilla pod, split and seeds scrapedor 15 ml (1 tbsp) vanilla bean paste
- 6large egg yolks (about 110 g)
- 150 gsugar (¾ cup)
- 1 pinchfine sea salt
- Diet
- Vegetarian, Gluten-free
- Allergens
- egg, milk
- Season
- Summer, All
Method
- If using a machine with a freezer bowl, put the bowl in the freezer at least 24 hours ahead.
- Heat the cream, milk and vanilla pod and seeds in a saucepan until steaming with small bubbles at the edge. Remove from the heat, cover and infuse 20 minutes. Remove the pod.
- Whisk the yolks, sugar and salt in a bowl until smooth and slightly pale. Rewarm the cream, then pour it slowly into the yolks, whisking constantly. Return everything to the pan.
- Cook over low heat, stirring constantly with a spatula and scraping the bottom, for 5–8 minutes, until the custard thickens enough to coat the spatula and a finger drawn across it leaves a clear line, at 80–82°C (176–180°F). Don't let it boil.
- Immediately strain into a clean bowl set in iced water and stir for 5 minutes to stop the cooking. Cover the surface and chill at least 4 hours or overnight; it must be very cold.
- Machine method: churn the cold custard according to the manufacturer's instructions, usually 20–30 minutes, until thick like soft-serve. Scrape into a chilled container, press baking paper on the surface and freeze 3–4 hours until firm.
- No-machine method: pour the cold custard into a shallow metal container and freeze. After 45 minutes, beat hard with a fork or whisk, scraping the frozen edges into the middle. Repeat every 30 minutes, 4–5 times, until thick and evenly frozen, then freeze until firm. For extra smoothness, blitz it in a food processor at the last beating.
- Soften the ice cream in the fridge for 10–15 minutes before scooping.
Why it works
Ice cream is smooth when its ice crystals are tiny. Egg yolks, cream fat and sugar all get in the way of crystals growing: the yolks emulsify and thicken, the fat coats the crystals, and the sugar lowers the freezing point so the ice cream stays soft enough to scoop. Churning, or regular beating by hand, breaks crystals up as they form and adds a little air.
Common mistakes
- Boiling the custard, which scrambles the yolks. Keep the heat low and use a thermometer.
- Churning a custard that isn't fully cold. It won't freeze properly in the machine.
- Cutting the sugar. Less sugar makes rock-hard ice cream.
Variations
- Coffee
- Infuse 30 g crushed coffee beans in the cream with the vanilla, then strain.
- Ripple
- As you scrape the churned ice cream into its container, layer it with spoonfuls of the berry sauce from Vanilla Panna Cotta or salted caramel and swirl once with a knife.
Make ahead and storage
Best within a week; keeps 2 weeks, tightly covered, in the freezer. Use the spare whites for Pavlova.
Notes
Total time assumes the machine method (custard, 4 hours chilling, churning and 3–4 hours firming). The freezer bowl of a machine needs its own 24 hours in the freezer beforehand.
