French Vanilla Ice Cream

On a high from the delicious Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream I made recently, I decided to broaden my horizons. A couple of older, slightly dried out vanilla beans called to me from the spice cabinet. Having successfully made a custard based ice cream led me in one direction, French Vanilla Ice Cream. I decided to veer off the path and not chill the ice cream base overnight as I had for the mint version. I didn't want to have to wait an extra day to enjoy the fruits of my labor. I also added a little extra cream to the base.

The result was super creamy, rich, delicious custard with lovely flecks of vanilla throughout. This is good ice cream!

French Vanilla Ice Cream

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Ingredients

• ▢ 1 cup whole milk
• ▢ ¾ cup sugar
• ▢ 2 ¼ cups heavy cream
• ▢ pinch of salt
• ▢ 2 vanilla beans
• ▢ 5 large egg yolks (beaten with a fork)

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Instructions

• In a medium saucepan, warm the milk, sugar, 1 cup heavy cream, and salt.
• Make a slit in each vanilla bean and scrape out the paste with a small spoon.
• Once the mixture is hot and steaming, remove from heat, add the vanilla bean and the paste. Stir well, cover and let stand for an hour to infuse the vanilla flavor.
• When cool, remove the beans and scrape again into the cream mixture. Discard the used beans.
• Reheat the cream/milk mixture but do not bring to a boil. Spoon one cup of the heated mixture into the beaten egg yolks a bit at a time, whisking constantly.
• After the cup of hot liquid has been added to the egg yolks, pour it back into the pot. Add the remaining 1 /14 cups of cream and stir well.
• Continue heating on low until the mixture covers the back of a spoon.
• Remove from heat and pour through a strainer over a bowl. Discard anything that is retained in the strainer.
• Immediately place the bowl in an ice water bath and stir until cooled. Chill in refrigerator until very cold. Place whatever storage container you plan to use in the freezer now.
• Freeze according to your ice cream maker's manufacturer instructions.
• Remove your storage container from the freezer and transfer the soft serve ice cream into it. Freeze until firm then enjoy.