Y’all, it’s hot out there. We’re at that point in late summer where even the wild things are wilting under all this heat. I certainly notice it anytime I go out to cut the grass—which has become a part of my Wednesday morning ritual. I’m either running out the door in the morning or the afternoon, but if I’m working outside at high noon, you best believe it’s an emergency. Nonetheless, when it’s as hot as it is there’s very few remedies to lower your body temperature. Sure, there’s ice down your shirt or a tall glass of lemonade, but fewer things bring as much pleasure as a bowl of ice cream.
Growing up, whenever it was a special occasion, we’d ask my grandfather to make ice cream for us. What I came to realize is the ice cream he made was more akin to ice milk, still ice like ice cream, just without, well, the cream. Last year, our ice cream maker bit the dust on a batch of Kathryn Tucker Windham’s vanilla custard ice cream. There went our only gallon-size ice cream maker! The plastic dasher broke off in the mix and unlocked a new inconvenience in the age of plastic.
From then on I resolved that the next ice cream maker I got would be a proper hand crank—with metal and wood—built to last. The darling of these kinds of ice cream makers are of the White Mountain brand. I had daydreams of soaking the wooden bucket in water, shoveling in ice and rock salt, and filling a shiny metal canister with cold custard. On the front porch, I’d watch the trucks and cars pass me by, all the while wearing my arm out from all that cranking.
Much to my surprise, last year I found a hand crank ice cream machine for quite a bargain. It’s only when I got home that I realized part of that bargain value was from the canister being rusted out at the bottom. Being an unbranded antique, the task of finding a replacement proved daunting.
Then, I noticed all the internet was abuzz with talk of this Ninja Creami, a $400 glorified blender made solely for ice cream and sorbets. According to some reviews, though, it ain’t all what it’s cracked up to be.
I was just about ready to give up when I saw a miraculous product—an ice cream maker attachment for a KitchenAid mixer. Essentially, it’s a bowl you put in the freezer, attach a dasher to the stirring mechanism, start the mixer and pour in your cold batter. About 15 or 20 minutes later, you’ve got 2 quarts of ice cream!
When a steal of a secondhand deal on eBay turned up in my search, I didn’t hesitate to see what all the fuss was about.
Once all the equipment showed up, the hard part was choosing what ice cream recipe to go with. Realistically, I’ve only ever been loyal to the KTW recipe, old-fashioned, flour-thickened, gallon-sized portions.
However, The Gift of Southern Cooking by Edna Lewis and Scott Peacock, has some of the only other ice cream recipes I’ve been curious to try. Not to mention, it’s one of the only cookbooks where I’ve found a recipe for ice milk.
So, over the last weekend, I spent Saturday making a decadent vanilla custard, and Sunday I churned it all together with the new ice cream maker.
I’m here to tell you, this is the ice cream to end all vanilla ice creams. It’s rich, it’s smooth, it’s floral, it’s simply fantastic. But enough of me talking about it, let’s get to freezing!
Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream
2 cups milk
1/2 vanilla bean, split lengthwise
8 egg yolks
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 cups heavy whipping cream
3/4 teaspoon salt
3 Tablespoons vanilla extract
Heat the milk and vanilla bean in a medium saucepan until just below the boiling point. Remove from the heat, cover, and sit for 20 minutes for the vanilla to infuse the milk.
In a mixing bowl, whisk the egg yolks and slowly add the sugar to blend. Then, slowly whisk 1 cup of the hot milk into the egg mixture to temper the yolks. Stir the tempered yolks into the milk and return to the heat. Cover over moderate heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon.
Once most of the air bubbles on the surface subside and the custard thickens enough to thickly coat the back of the spoon, remove from the heat. Do not allow the custard to simmer or boil.
Once removed from the stove, add the heavy cream. Cool the custard completely before stirring in the salt and vanilla extract. Chill overnight.
The next day, pour the custard through a fine mesh strainer. Rinse and dry the vanilla bean to reserve for future use. Freeze the custard in an ice cream freezer, according to the manufacturer’s instructions.
Now, if you can’t find a vanilla bean, I know where they have them—those fancy grocery stores. Beware, though, they are quite expensive. However, vanilla bean paste is a recent addition to many baking aisles and is a superb stand-in for a whole vanilla bean. A general rule with the vanilla bean paste is 1 teaspoon of paste equals about 1 whole vanilla bean.
It goes without saying, this is what I used when making this custard, but I’ll always tell you to do as I say, not as I do.
If you are curious about the capacity of the KitchenAid ice cream maker attachment, well, the generous two quarts this custard makes is just enough to have the freezer teeming with this frozen treat. For those of you curious how many servings that is, it’s about 6-8 or about 4 in our household.
The double whammy of vanilla bean and vanilla extract really give this ice cream an extra edge over the sacred Blue Bell that seems to be in every freezer in the South.
My great aunt Micki always kept a collection of Blue Bell in her freezer. Anytime I was over there, I knew that meant a bowl of ice cream, usually the newest flavor that Blue Bell was pushing.
When the listeria outbreak happened, I remember her telling me all the ice creams she was mixing and matching in a desperate attempt to replicate the magic of Blue Bell. To me, this ice cream far surpasses in both richness and texture, any ice cream you may be reaching for in the freezer aisle.
I will say, it’s been a regular occurrence now that nearer to closing time at the Piggly Wiggly (that I’m still calling FoodValu), John and I will rush in to get a couple of pints of that meandering dairy maid’s spoils.
Inevitably, someone will be right in front of us who came only to get either a half gallon or a couple of pints of Blue Bell as well. We’ll check out each other’s flavor choices, compliment them, compare some of our other favorites. In the end, we always say, “I haven’t had a scoop of Blue Bell that I didn’t enjoy!”
And it’s true. Sure, it’s more convenient to just run in the store and shill out $10 for a half gallon of “homemade” vanilla. I’m here to tell you, though, that a real homemade vanilla ice cream will always have that special something you can’t get off a shelf.
Sure, it takes time, it takes some waiting, but when you finally get to lick the dasher, all that goes away.
