It’s wicked hot outsides, and people are looking for any way possible to cool down. What better way than with delectable, homemade ice cream? With this traditional ice cream base, you’ll be able to make almost any type of ice cream you want with just a few added ingredients.
For the best results, make this base the night before you actually plan to finish the ice cream; this will help improve the consistency and richness of your final product.
Ingredients
- 2 1/4 cups of heavy cream
- 3/4 cup of whole milk
- 6 large egg yolks
- 3/4 cup of white sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract (Double this for vanilla ice cream)
- Pinch of salt
Directions
- In large mixing bowl, combine egg yolks and sugar, whisking them until all the sugar is blended into the egg yolk. Stop just as this mixture begins to thicken.
- Add the cream and milk, whisking until all the ingredients are blended completely together. If you see any yellowish streaks in your mixture, then you’ll want to keep whisking.
- Pour the mix in a heavy-bottomed pot (two quart or larger), and then place it over medium-low heat. Stirring regularly, heat the mixture to a temperature of 170° F. Then add your vanilla and salt, stirring one last time.
- Remove from heat and place in refrigerator overnight.
- Before freezing in your ice cream maker, strain your base to remove any potential egg bits.
- Freeze in ice cream maker per instructions found on the machine.
Mix it up
Vanilla Bean: To make vanilla bean ice cream instead of just plain vanilla, steep your vanilla bean in the milk/cream mixture for about two hours. Completely cool your steeped milk and cream mixture, remove the vanilla bean and then add it to your egg and sugar mixture.
Chocolate: In the mood for chocolate ice cream? Add some cocoa powder to your egg and sugar mixture. YUM!
Mint: Want mint ice cream? Follow the same tips you would for the vanilla bean, only using mint leaves instead. Add a couple drops of green food coloring to get the fun mint color.
What this won’t work for
Sorry, folks, but this base won’t work well for fruit-based ice creams. Because of the increased liquid from the fresh fruits, plus the added sugar content, we can’t just insert fresh strawberries into this mix and get strawberry ice cream. We know! This is terrible, and we’re terribly sorry. The same is true for peaches, raspberries, blueberries and basically any other fruit. Each one is different, therefore requiring a different recipe. Let us know in the comments which of those you’d like to try, and we’ll try to get a recipe for you.
This also won’t work for people on diets, but who really thought it would?
Enjoy!
