It’s never too cold for ice cream.
(See update at bottom of post.)
So, after discovering that new technique for making ice cream, I had to make some for myself. With the banana ice cream, I took a standard egg-custard ice cream and tweaked it. Basically, my biggest pet peeve with homemade ice cream is that it freezes very hard and is never the “right” texture. It’s always too icy. This method makes soft, scoopable, creamy, clean-tasting ice cream. It’s delicious.
Here’s a little photo-essay:
The cream cheese doesn’t affect the taste of the ice cream. But boy does it help create the proper texture.
No extract in this recipe.
Josh says it looks like heroin. He’s never done heroin, so I’m not sure how he knows this.
Before cooking.
At end of cooking.
Chilled, strained, ready to freeze in ice cream machine.
After churning, and ready to freeze.
Food porn close-up. (Click to make it bigger.)
This ice cream is delicious, but might be a little too vanilla-y, and maybe a touch too sweet, for my tastes. Josh LOVES it. The texture, after several hours of being frozen, is the best texture I’ve ever gotten from a homemade ice cream. This is reason enough for me to continue with this technique. Next time, I’m trying chocolate, maybe with peanut butter.
P.S. This recipe is easier than the banana recipe. Fewer ingredients, less sieving, and less time spent chilling.
Vanilla Bean Ice Cream, recipe by Jeni Britton. I, for once, followed a recipe to the letter.
UPDATE – 1/8/09 3:15 pm: Nevermind what I said about this ice cream being too vanilla-y and too sweet. It is PERFECT. The only difference between today and yesterday is that the ice cream has been frozen for over 18 hours. When I first had a bite it was right out of the ice cream machine. I must say that this ice cream is best served cold. It is very easy to scoop right out of the freezer, and the texture is PHENOMENAL. I highly recommend this recipe and technique. To those of you who are thinking “Cream cheese in ice cream? No, thanks,” don’t be weenies. Try it. Need more convincing? Check this shot:
(Click to view larger size.)
Amazing texture, right? Further, this might be one of the few vanilla ice creams I’ve had that is delicious enough to eat by itself. So, ignore my little comments yesterday. I was wrong, clearly.
YUM!!! It looks amazing!! I used to work with a guy whose wife was a baker. She worked at Kaldi’s from midnight AM until 6am making all of their goodies. She loved it. Loved to bake, plus was there all night with only one other person. They never talked… just did their thing… were creative… and loved it. Therapy. Girl, you need to do soemthing with this!!!
Alice
January 11, 2009 at 7:10 pm
The only thing is that it’s physically demanding. I’ve already got the chronic neck issue, which is better by the way but only because I’m not doing this stuff all day long, everyday.
I do really like it, though. It does make me feel better. For now, I’m going to just keep doing what I’m doing. But I’ll keep it in mind for the future. You never know…
spants
January 11, 2009 at 10:25 pm
Great things come from one’s passion. You know?
Regardless, Josh must be fucking happy (and gaining by the second… ha ha ha) from all of this homemade cooking. You and I would be a marriage from hell, as you would have to roll me out the door with all of those goodies. I’ll admit it… sugar whore, I am.
Alice
January 11, 2009 at 11:25 pm
You’re right. It’s just hard to know how good I am at this. I do know that I like it. Maybe if it’s something I can do from home. My brother wanted me to talk my boss into selling my cheesecake at the bookstore, but I don’t know.
Josh has gained a bit of weight. Some of that is the holidays, some of it my cooking (or really, his lack of portion control), but mostly that he hasn’t been doing masonry work for a few weeks. I think that’s been the biggest culprit as he was by no means dieting before. In fact, he would eat fast food when he was out. He just burned it off.
Ironically, I’ve lost weight since I started all of this. Since I’m putting in all the work, I think I’m savoring the food as opposed to just mindlessly eating it. And, it helps that I’m forcing a lot of it onto other people.
If it’s not here, I can’t eat it. If I only get two brownies from the whole pan, then I can’t eat the whole pan. See?
spants
January 11, 2009 at 11:33 pm