Vanilla Ice Cream

I always make this homemade vanilla ice cream available in my freezer for it is so important to serve with some dessert that we have it at home most of the time. For example lava cake, fruit crumble, soufflé, waffle, pancakes, chocolate fondue, banana boat dessert, ice blended drinks, brownies.... you name it! Not only that, having just a good scoop of this vanilla ice cream alone is so wonderful!

I had a five stars lava cake in the restaurant before but the vanilla ice cream at the side is so light and watery. I could taste the sweetness  only but without and flavour. It would be nice if the lava cake serve with a good dollop of vanilla ice cream.

I have been making different ice cream and this is the base of every ice cream. The important part is the ingredients and the best cooked custard. It produce a creamy, rich and smoorh  texture. This recipe is the best I have experienced so far and before I experiment a better one. I will stick on this recipe.  My family love it so much. Thumbs up!

Recipe modified from Cook with Jamie::

370ml whole milk

470mll cream

6 tablespoons caster sugar

2 vanilla pod, scored lengthways and seeds scraped out

6 large egg yolks

1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste

1 1/2 teaspoon cointreau

Miix the milk, 3 tablespoons of caster sugar and the vanilla pod and seeds together in a saucepan. Bring just to the boil, then remove from the heat and leave for a couple of minutes to cool slightly and allow the vanilla flavour to infuse. Discard the vanilla pod. 

In a large mixing bowl, whisk the egg yolks with the 3 remaining tablespoons of caster sugar until pale. Ladle a little of the hot milk mixture onto the eggs and whisk immediately. Continue to add the milk, a ladleful at a time, whisking each well before adding the next. Pour this mixture back into the warm saucepan and cook very gently for a few minutes, stirring constantly with a rubber spatula or wooden spoon until smooth and thicken. Strain the custard through a fine sieve and keep stirring to reduce the heat to avoid the egg cook any further. 

Once the custard slightly cool down, add the cream and vanilla bean paste and mix well. Lastly, add the cointreau if using. It is quite optional but I just like that little flavour inside the ice cream and  I also believe a bit of liqour helps the ice cream set smoothly in the freezer. Cling wrap the custard and chill in the fridge overnight before churning in the ice cream maker. Once the custard had churned,  transfer them to an ice cream container and keep in the freezer for few hours until set. Enjoy!