Vanilla-tastic!

I am very new to the way of homemade ice cream. To help me gain confidence in my new found hobby, I have been researching everything ice cream. From cooks to stylists to history to wacky flavour combinations, and I am slowly building my knowledge base.  

In all this reading I have discovered my ice cream hero, pastry chef - David Lebovitz. Author of the ice cream bible - 'The Perfect Scoop'. 

The Vanilla Bean Ice Cream recipe I used was from the book - and it was awesome. My first attempt at a custard base style ice cream, so I was a little nervous. 

My hot tip, is to really really keep stirring where the recipe says to stir. Otherwise your ice cream will end up with an 'eggy' flavour to it.

I followed the recipe ALMOST exactly. I used philadelphia cooking cream and a little thickened cream for the 'cream'. This was only because it's what I had in the fridge, the ice cream was delicious and I think it would have been regardless of this change.

Vanilla Ice Cream

About 1 litre

1 cup of whole milk

A pinch of salt

3/4 cup of sugar

1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise

2 cups of heavy cream

5 large egg yolks

1 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract

1. Heat the milk, salt and sugar in a saucepan. Scrape the seeds from the vanilla bean into the milk with a paring knife, then add the bean pod to the milk. Cover, remove from heat, and infuse for one hour

2. To make the ice cream, set up an ice bath by placing a 2 litre bowl in a larger bowl partially filled with ice and water. Set a strainer over the top of the smaller bowl and pour the cream into the bowl.

3. In a separate bowl, stir together the egg yolks. Rewarm the milk then gradually pour some of the milk into the yolks, whisking constantly as you pour. Scrape the warmed yolks and milk back into the saucepan.

4. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly and scraping the bottom with a heat-resistant spatula, until the custard thickens enough to coat the spatula.

5. Strain the custard into the cream. Stir over the ice until cool, add the vanilla extract, then refrigerate to chill thoroughly (ideally overnight)

6. Remove the vanilla bean and freeze the custard in your ice cream maker according to the machines instructions.

Delicious!

In the beginning...

In the beginning, there was the occasional purchase of delicious Homer Hudson Choc Rock, or anything from the Maggie Beer ice cream collection. But then, Santa, in all his wisdom delivered me an ice cream making machine this Christmas.

Once my pretty machine made it back to Melbourne from Christmas with the family, it took a number of days to test it out...kids, life, a little fear of a new machine held me back.  The opening ice cream recipe came directly from the machine's instruction manual - lame I know - but I needed a starting point.

Banana Ice Cream, was delicious.  If I made it again, I would use super super ripe banana's (like you use when making banana bread). Sprinkle some crushed nuts over the top - Yum!

Banana Ice Cream (from Lumina Ice Cream Maker Instruction Manual)
Ingredients: 
1 Large Banana
200 ml Skim Milk
100 ml Thickened Cream
50g Sugar

Method:
Mash the banana until smooth. Mix in skim milk, thickened cream and sugar. Pour mixture into your ice cream machine, follow your machines instructions for mixing - mine was around 20 mins. Allow to freeze in freezer until desired consistency is achieved. 


ICE CREAM FACT: The first commercial ice cream was produced in Australia in 1907 (http://www.streets.com.au/love-the-facts/)