Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Stop Screaming for Ice Cream and Start Making Some

With the Fourth of July holiday right around the corner, I decided to rerun this video recipe for vanilla ice cream that I did last year. An abbreviated version of the original post follows...

When it came to choosing a flavor, I decided to do vanilla, as it really is the king of ice creams (sorry chocolate). No other flavor makes milk taste milkie
r, or cream taste creamier.

When I do vanilla ice cream, I prefer the old fashion "American," or "Philadelphia-style" which doesn't contain any eggs, as
does the more popular French vanilla. While this style of ice cream is certainly not as rich, in my opinion that sacrifice is rewarded with a brighter, more pronounced vanilla flavor.I also use a combination of milk and cream, which is obviously much lighter than the traditional all cream versions. You can experiment with different proportions to find your "perfect scoop."

The Cuisinart ice cream maker pictured here is the one I use, and highly recommend. It's relatively inexpensive, and will provide many years of homemade ice cream and other frozen desserts. The great thing about this model is that the "bucket" is kept in the freezer, and is ready any time you are. Enjoy!




Ingredients:
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup cream
2 1/4 cup milk
2 tsp pure vanilla extract


View the complete recipe

Ice Cream Photo (c) Flickr user Yogma

56 comments:

Broklynite said...

I had my eye on this exact ice-cream maker for about 3 years or so. A couple of months ago, the price suddenly plummeted on amazon to ~$35 (I see it has gone up again since then). I snatched it up in seconds. It's easy to use, as you point out, but it is terrible at scraping the frozen ice cream off the sides and mixing it with the rest of the ice cream. As a result, I generally stick a spoon in and gently scrape the inside slowly in a spiral to mix it in- the process speeds up beautifully, but it is a pain in the butt. It seems to be a common complaint on the model. Do you have any thoughts? Also, I will say that yes yes yes you MUST chill the solution before you try to make ice cream from it. I never waited 2 hours, but I do other tricks to cool it. This after one time in the beginning sneering and declaring such cooling to be nonsense. First ice cream I made was strawberry. Was never a big fan of strawberry but I prepared the strawberries and everything and made it. First taste and my eyes popped open- to anybody reading this if you have never tried home-made fresh strawberry ice cream you are missing OUT. I cannot go back now. Sorry for the rambling.

Chef John said...

I've never had that problem with the paddle. It seems that way when it first starts, but if you just let it go, it scrapes fine.

Connie T. said...

I bought a 1 qt Rival ice cream maker. I made ice cream a couple of days ago. It came out good. I will try your recipe, but it looks like yours is 2 qts. I will try the heating up of the sugar and cream. I didn't know you could do that. Thanks for the video.

Connie T. said...

I also can't wait to see the caramel video. Yummmm.

Luatica said...

I don't know why I'm even here. I'm sick and doctor said I can't eat in two days. I guess I'm enjoying imaginary food by reading your website. If you want nuts in your ice cream you add them in the beginning or towards the end?

Anonymous said...

Hi Chef, Nice new welcome message video on the side. Tho you look 'normal' without your chef whites. Thanks for the ice cream vid--I have this same machine thanks to your original post and have enjoyed making ice cream. Have a great July 4th. :)

milkshake said...

The vanilla ice cream + caramel combo is greatly improved with chopped walnuts and a spoon of dark aged rum (spiced rum works too).

A secret ingredient: A half piece of ripe Haas avocado blended into the vanilla ice cream liquid mix. Has to be blended in while cold, warm milk would ruin the flavor. Addition of avocado turns the color slightly into greenish but it brings out the vanilla flavor in the most delightful way. Avocado improves the mouth-feel as well.

Homemade ice-creams tend to melt faster and drip more since no gum stabilizers are added - most supermarket brands (except for Haagen Dazs) contains carrageenan, carob bean, xanthan gums. Gum-free ice creams tend to taste better.

Anonymous said...

what? no salt?

Charlemange said...

I bought a brand new Doniver ice cream maker at a thrift store for $8. Ice cream is not my favorite food, but when I make it at home, it is way better than any store brand.

tonkaslim said...

Stir all the sugar into one cup of milk and microwave for one minute. Stir a few more seconds and the sugar will be dissolved. Add to the rest of the milk and cream. Chills faster and saves some clean up.

I substituted 1/4 cup of brown sugar. Delicious!

Anonymous said...

umm...do i NEED to have an ice cream maker? or can i make it by hand?

Chef John said...

you need a maker

rose said...

What about freezing it after chilling if u dont have maker?

Chef John said...

ice crystals form and ruin the texture. Think about it, if it was that easy there would be no ice cream makers and everyone would be making ice cream!

Euthie said...

It's so funny that you do a video about this because I'd been wanting an ice cream maker for years and just recently purchased one for my birthday last month...ever since I've been making ice cream like crazy, LOL. I like the french vanilla custardy recipe....and my favorite milk combo so far has been using evaporated milk and half & half together. Have you ever tried evaporated milk? I tried using coconut milk...but even though I tempered the eggs I still wound up with scrambled eggs...yuck. Thanks for this vid!!!

Chef John said...

never tried evap, this one works for me. Thanks!

Anonymous said...

The caramel recipe soon, please!

Anonymous said...

Hi chef! I can't wait to try your recipe! I have the same ice cream maker and havn't been succesfull with the results. I think it's the ingredients... I'm from Mexico and was wondering what kind of cream you use because here we don't have one that just named "cream". And I don't know which one to buy! Thank you! Congratulations on your blog!

Anonymous said...

hi chief i wanted to make it as fast as possible so the markets near my home didn't have Vanilla so i bought a chocolate syrup and right now i'm going to make it i will post it as soon as i finished

Anonymous said...

oh and chief i even don't have an ice cream maker so im just gonna use a mixer

Anonymous said...

hi chief i am the one with no vanilla and ice cream maker i have results : ...................
.
.
it worked thx chief your awesome i had a chocolate ice cream and every one loved it so awesome thx chief and i said it honesty really it worked

Anonymous said...

Hi chef. the ice cream tastes great. could you perhaps tell us how many calories it has?

Caribchile said...

Hi Chef, how are you?
Great recipe, however I need to find out something. Can you substitute vanilla essence for vanilla extract?
Thanks, and keep cooking!

Halcian

Chef John said...

never heard of vanilla essence, but if it's used for baking then it should work.

Unknown said...

Hi, nice video, what kind of cream do you use ? is it single cream ?, we have single cream, double cream, whipping cream and many more.
Thanks

Yvonne said...

Hi I am writting from Malaysia! Would really appreciate it if you can tell me what is the brand of cream you use? My question is similar to Dionyios reader. Great video! And would love to try it!

Chef John said...

It's just sold as "heavy cream" or "heavy whipping cream"

Yvonne said...

I have made the vanilla ice cream and it taste great! I garnish with crush oreo ice cream. I have to use 35% fat Bridel whipping cream though as I could not find heavy cream or heavy whipping cream. Will make a post of the vanilla ice cream in my blog. thank you for the lovely recipe. Would be nice if you can make a post of the caramel sauce. It look yummy!

Hayah said...

Hi Chef,

The recipe looks great and I can't wait to try out my ice cream maker.

I have two questions regarding the recipe. First, is a 38% whipping cream what is meant by "heavy" whipping cream? Or is that not heavy enough?

Second, if I wanted a mint ice cream, would I just add in some mint extract or is there another recipe for it completely?

Thanks!

Chef John said...

yes, that cream is fine, and yes also on the extract.

Welcome To My Kitchen said...

Hello
I made the vanilla ice cream yesterday and it was heavenly! Thanks for sharing. I would like to write a post about this ice cream with pictures i took if I can get your permission with a link back to your post. I want to share with my readers this yummy dessert.Please contact me on my blog. Thanks again I will never buy store bought again, lol.

Chef John said...

Thanks! Link away :-)

Unknown said...

*bump bump*

Hey John!

How about your caramel recipe video? :) I know I can just youtube some other caramel-making video but still.. I would prefer yours! aaand you've promised, so cmon! :)

anyway keep it up the great work, you and your videos are awesome :)

mobeid said...

Hi chef, thank you for this wonderful recipe but I wanna ask you why some of the other recipes of ice creams contain an eggs or eggs yolk?

Anonymous said...

Hello Chef John,
In the video you say that one can use cream and milk, or all cream, or all milk. If I understood correctly, could you kindly explain if organic milk or Almond milk can be used? Also if some or only cream is used, what would you recommend?
Thank you very much!
Clara

Lisa said...

If I wanted to use vanilla beans instead of the extract, would one bean = tsp. of vanilla? What would be the proportion? Also, do you recommend using the whole bean, or splitting a scraping out the center? thanks =)

Lisa said...

Hi, is it possible to replace the vanilla extract in your recipe with vanilla beans? If so, what would be the proportion? 1 bean = 1 tsp of extract? Also, do you recommend using just the inside of the bean or the whole thing? thanks...

Chef John said...

One bean is fine. You can use the pod in the milk but remove before churning.

Anonymous said...

when you mean by a few how many hours do you have to freeze the ice cream after you put the plastic wrap on (it is a good idea)

Chef John said...

just until firm! not sure exactly maybe 3-4?

Anonymous said...

thats a cool ice cream maker. i have the newer version of it

Anonymous said...

how many quarts is this recepie

Chef John said...

About 1

Joanne :) said...

what creamer should i use for the best results ?

Joanne :) said...

what creamer should i use for the best results ?

Chef John said...

creamer?

Joanne :) said...

ermm..i mean the ingredients ..

opa. said...

I tried with 2 spoons of vanilla and it was too much. I think just one spoon should be fine.

Anonymous said...

I dont get how to make this what kind of cream do we need

Anonymous said...

What can we use if we dont have the cuisinart thingymabob

Chef John said...

nothing!

Anonymous said...

Ice cream maker on sale at Costco for $23.99.

Anonymous said...

is half & half OK? I use that for another recipe as heavy cream and it works fine...

Anonymous said...

Can I quadruple this recipe to make in my large (rock salt and ice needed) ice cream maker? Are there any changes I would need to make? Thanks for all your videos and recipes! They are great!

Moromillas Radec said...

Mix left in the freezer overnight.
It just rotates around the bowl with the paddles, like a merry-go-round, until it turns back into a liquid, it doesn't want to churn.
What do?

Sheina Hakimi said...

sometimes when i try to make ice cream it leaves a waxy aftertaste- have you had this issue? and if so, how do you prevent it?