New Gadget, New Treat!

For Christmas, I received a kitchen gadget that I’ve wanted for a long time, but only recently had a place to store it when not in use—an ice cream maker. I have looked at several over the years, and read many reviews, but decided a while ago that the one for me is the Kitchenaid Ice Cream Maker that attaches to my standing mixer. It requires no ice or rock salt, has the same (or greater) capacity as most other makers, and best of all, can be stored in our freezer chest, ready to make ice cream and sherbet at a moment’s notice.

There are a ton a recipes I want to try (my MIL also got me a Ben & Jerry’s ice cream cookbook), but I decided the bets place to start was with vanilla ice cream. Easy enough, right? Maybe not so much…I found tons of recipes! How would I ever choose?

I decided to keep it simple, so went with a recipe I found online that used no eggs, only milk and cream. I got both of these items from the dairy at the NFM, wanting the best quality available to me. (Because of this, I used heavy cream as called for, but 2% milk instead of whole.) It was also important to me to make vanilla bean ice cream, with an actual bean scraped into the custard mixture.

The result was creamy, delicious, and so simple that I’m certain I’ll make it again. My new gadget worked like a champ, too. I decided to play it safe and make the recipe exactly as directed, but I’m fairly certain I could have doubled the recipe and still had enough room.

Vanilla Bean Ice Cream (Philadelphia-Style)
2 cups heavy cream, divided
1 cup whole milk
¾ cup sugar
Pinch of salt
1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise
1 tsp. vanilla extract
Combine 1 cup of the cream with the sugar and salt in a medium saucepan.  Scrape the seeds from the vanilla bean into the pan and drop in the vanilla pod.  Heat over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until the sugar is dissolved.  Remove the mixture from the heat and stir in the remaining 1 cup of cream, the milk and the vanilla.
Cover and refrigerate until the mixture is well chilled.  Remove the vanilla bean before churning.  Freeze in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions.

I’ve already chosen my next frozen concoction: Lemon Raspberry Sherbet. Stay tuned!

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