French Vanilla Ice Cream
What great pleasure a scoop of ice cream can offer!!!
I made my first batch of ice cream for the season last month. I wanted to make chocolate ice cream and my partner wanted raspberry. I could very well have made 2 batches, but decided against that and made a classic instead-French vanilla ice-cream, with a chocolate sauce for my serving and a raspberry sauce for my partner’s.
As soon as the weather warms up here in Germany, everyone goes out for ice cream or Gelato. In fact, way before it even really warms up!!! When I first arrived in Germany I spent some time in a little quaint town called Detmold. I recall the lines of people waiting to get their gelati. It was pretty much one of the only things to really do, as the town was rather small and “Picolli” (I think the name was) was really at the heart of the town-a meeting spot for all and a place to just hang out and lick delicious gelato.
I have a number of pivotal ice-cream experiences, all of which I recall to this day. It was during my first visit to Italy that fell in love with hazelnut gelato and since then I am a devoted lover. As a young child, I loved ice cream from a place called Baskin Robbins. I recall being in the USA for my 10th birthday and asking my parents if we could get a tub of chocolate peppermint ice cream-I recall that it was an oddly light green colour with flecks of chocolate. During my college years, I spent countless nights staying up and studying over tubs of Häagen-Dazs ice-cream. I tried all of the flavours initially and fell in love with pralines and cream. At this point, I graduated to what I then referred to as more “grown-up” flavours and took over pralines and cream as my all-time favourite.
Nowadays, I cannot enjoy the store-purchased varieties at all-even the so-called gourmet brands. Something is just missing. Perhaps it is just that personal touch-that taste of someone mixing the ingredients, of someone cracking the eggs into the bowl-the passion and the love behind creating something by hand. Whatever it is, I can certainly tell the difference!
This recipe is rather decadent in that I used only fresh organic cream and no milk at all, which made it yes, well….utterly-ultimately-wonderfully-awesomely-creamy. I will keep this one as my standard recipe for
French vanilla ice-cream
You will need:
- 6 large egg yolks
- ½ cup of sugar
- 2 cups of heavy cream
- 1 cup of heavy cream
- 1 vanilla bean cut lengthwise
- 1 teaspoons of cognac
Mix the egg yolks with the sugar in a mixing bowl until slightly thick in consistency.
In a saucepan, warm the 2 cups of heavy cream to medium heat, just barely allowing it to simmer. Once it just reached that simmering point, remove from heat and then por the mixture into the egg and sugar mixture.
Mix thoroughly.
Return this cream, egg and sugar mixture to the saucepan. Scrape the vanilla pods out of the seed and add to the mixture.
Heat the mixture again over medium heat until it thickens into a custard-like consistency. It should just cover the back of a spoon. When you have reached this point, remove from heat and add in the remaining cup of cream and add the cognac.
Place the liquid into a container and place in the freezer until it is completely chilled. Once it is chilled you are ready to put the mixture into your ice-cream maker and…..well, the rest is up to you!!!
Enjoy!!! Tip: It is best to let the ice cream “ripens” in the freezer for at least 2 hours before serving. It just brings out the flavour!
O