Kitchenette

Hello everyone - Jennie, your usual site blogger, has graciously allowed me, her usual husband, to post about the wonders and virtues of homemade Vanilla Ice Cream.

A short introduction about me: I’m generally referred to as Robert in the house, although “hey you” is the preferred terminology. If the blog is ever down, it’s my fault, and odds are, I’m fixing it. Before college, my mom did most of the cooking (and a lot of runs to Taco Bell), but now that Jennie and I are in the real world, it’s time to have some real food. I prefer to cook with Coltrane or Miles on the stereo.

If only the kitchen were about twice as large. But onto the ice cream!

I confess that I have a sweet tooth. That’s putting it mildy; more accurate would be to say that I probably have sweet teeth, and when the day inevitably comes that I’ll need dentures, those will be sweetened with turbinado sugar, too. With confectioner’s sugar on the side.

But I think my first revelation regarding the viability of ice cream at home came thanks to Iron Chef America, circa 2006. Thanks Alton Brown. (Ice cream machine!!!) It’s not so much that I wanted to shove seaweed, tomatoes, or kashi into one and come out with something edible, though the thought has crossed my mind. Like the miracle that makes flour, yeast, salt and water into bread, taking heavy cream, sugar, whole milk, and a vanilla bean and creating ice cream out of it is something I’ve wanted to see firsthand.

The recipe is from America’s Test Kitchen Family Cookbook, but it’s available here to subscribers of the website. One ice cream attachment for our stand mixer later, and we were ready to roll. Then there’s the matter of the vanilla bean, which necessitated a stop at Penzey’s. The beans retail for a modest $2 and change each, in sets of 3 for $6.89 or 15 for $27.29. I haven’t come up with a reason to buy 15 vanilla beans yet, but to be sure, I’m thinking. Everything else, you should be able to find at your local supermarket.

Vanilla Ice Cream
Adapted from Cooks Illustrated.com
Makes 1 quart.  An instant-read thermometer will make your life happier during this process.

1 1/2 cups whole milk
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 vanilla bean, seeds scraped out of the pod (they say 4 inches long, but I didn’t measure mine)
4 large egg yolks

1. Set a medium bowl in a large bowl filled with ice water, then put a strainer on top of the medium bowl.  This is probably the hardest part of the recipe, since for a while it looked like I would get a nice ice-water custard. If you can find something to weight down the edges of the bowl, it will help.

2.  Stirring occasionally, heat milk, cream 1/2 cup sugar, vanilla (pod, seeds and all) to a temperature of 175°F (steamy, as in McSteamy - about 5 minutes).

3.  Whisk the 4 yolks and remaining 1/4 cup sugar in another bowl. Temper the eggs by pouring, one ladle at a time, 1 1/2 cups of the hot milk mixture into the bowl with the eggs and sugar (you don’t want vanilla-flavored scrambled eggs, right?)

4.  Pour the egg and milk mixture back into the hot milk. Stir constantly and heat to 180°F to 185°F. This won’t take very long! If it starts boiling, remove from heat immediately.

5.  Remove the vanilla pod (or add vanilla extract, if you prefer) and strain. Stir occasionally in the cold bowl for about 30 minutes. Cover it with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 3 hours (until the temperature of the custard reaches 40°F.)

6.  When you’re ready to make the ice cream, stir the custard thoroughly and add the custard to the ice cream machine, following the machine’s instruction manual. At this point, it will have the consistency of soft-serve.  Freeze for another 3 hours or so, and it’ll be scoopable and delicious.