Sweet Cream Ice Cream

Vanilla beans are expensive. Really expensive. I'm talking around $10 for two beans, which is a lot if you think about it. Fortunately Fairway sells two beans to a tube for $3.00, and the store is a godsend for doing so. Downside is there isn't a convenient location for me to visit, so when I go I buy 10 tubes (20 beans) in one go. Because my last batch of ice cream was subpar and I used an entire bean in it, I made the decision to only use the beans when necessary and not until I perfected the sweet cream base. Seems logical, right?

In fact, I'm making my own vanilla as I type from used vanilla beans. I hate waste! Especially when it comes to money. I plan on never buying vanilla extract again.

See that brownish-clear goodness? Just a couple more beans and I'll be set!









Sweet Cream Ice Cream

Ingredients

2 cups whole milk
1 cup heavy cream
3/4 cup sugar

Instructions

As before I mixed the whole milk and the sugar in my KitchenAid mixer for approximately 5 minutes before adding the cream.

After letting this mix for another 5 minutes, I removed the batter from the mixer and put it in the fridge for a few hours. I wanted it to chill for a while before putting it in the ice cream maker. 

This is what it looked like after churning for about 10 minutes. 

And this is what it looked after 20 minutes. It's thickening!

Yummers! This is after a total of 25 minutes. 

Again I scooped the ice cream into a container to put in the freezer for just a bit to give it time to harden some more. This ice cream turned out pretty well, but it wasn't 100% to my liking. Because I churned it for 25 minutes, the texture was a little more airy, a little more whipped than I prefer. Don't get wrong - it was still delicious! I liked it very much. And no weird ice crystals or fat globs in this batch. 

Overall I like the progress I'm making! I think my next batch may prove to be even tastier :D