By JulieVR
I’m not a kitchen gadget person, but I do adore my ice cream maker. Homemade is far superior to the store-bought kind – without added preservatives or stabilizers, or air whipped in to add volume – and cream is cheaper. The problem, I find, is having to make an eggy custard, strain it, and wait for it to chill before I can transform it into ice cream. Most days I’m not that patient. And so when I discovered a delicious ice cream base can be stirred together in under a minute, and poured directly into the machine to freeze? Sold.
This is classic vanilla, but makes an easy blank canvas you can add most any ingredient to – swirl in mashed or pureed strawberries, chocolate syrup, roasted peaches, a spoonful of sour cream – use your imagination and create new flavours all summer long.
Easy Vanilla Bean Ice Cream
Ingredients
- 2 cups heavy (whipping) cream, chilled
- 2 cups half & half, chilled
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1 fresh vanilla bean, or 2 tsp. real vanilla extract
Directions
- In a large bowl, whisk together the cream, half & half and sugar. Split the vanilla bean with the tip of a sharp knife, scrape out the seeds, and stir them in too. (Or add your vanilla extract.)
- Pour into your ice cream machine and freeze according to the manufacturer’s directions. Makes about 2 L.
