Ice Cream

For the holidays, my employer gave each employee a catalog from which they could choose a gift. To be honest, I miss the occasionally corny gifts that they gave before the catalogs but this way I do get something I actually want. Overall, I think it's a good thing. This is the third such catalog I've received and, for the first time, I actually sent away for one of the gifts... an ice cream maker.

Vanilla seemed the way to go but if you're going to make vanilla ice cream you really must go the full eggs/custard route. It was with this in mind that I set out to make my first batch. The recipe was simple:
1 cup whole milk
4oz. sugar (about .8 cups)
4 egg yolks
1 cup heavy cream
2 tsp. vanilla

I carefully scalded the milk and dissolved the sugar. I added some of the hot mixture to the egg yolks (slowly, oh so slowly). I added the eggs back into the remaining milk/sugar mixture. I cooked until slightly thickened. I chilled (both in the refrigerating the mixture sense and in the hanging out and relaxing sense). The next day I mixed in the cream and vanilla and poured it into the ice cream maker. It's like magic... at first you just have liquid moving around, an hour later you have ice cream. I tossed it into the freezer to get a bit harder and, a bit later, tried it out. I must say it's good ice cream. It's also very rich ice cream. My next experiment will be in making a slightly lower fat version... something I don't need to feel quite so bad about eating.

Overall it was an exciting, hear pounding, adrenaline pumping thrill ride of a cooking experience. Forget skydiving, forget scuba diving, forget rock climbing... it's all about the ice cream!