Ice Cream: Vanilla Bean

Happy  Wednesday, Noshers! Today I’m excited to share a recipe for an old reliable (and personal favorite) ice cream flavor – vanilla bean.  You may have read about my previous ice cream experiments with David Lebovitz’s recipes for roasted banana ice cream and basil ice cream – delish! While I absolutely loved these two flavors (especially the basil, YUM), vanilla bean is perfect standby ice cream to go with everything – whether it’s apple pie, hot fudge sundaes, or my personal favorite of just digging in with a spoon.

There were a few recipes for vanilla ice cream in my go-to book, The Perfect Scoop, but I chose the simplest one – “Philadelphia style” (no eggs). This makes for a less complicated recipe and also a lighter, “chewier” finished product.  But
don’t take my word for it; check out this super-simple, 5 ingredient recipe for yourself!

You will need:

Vanilla Ice Cream (Philadelphia style)

From David Lebovitz’s The Perfect Scoop

• 2 cups heavy cream and one cup whole milk or half-and-half OR 3 cups heavy cream
• ¾ cup sugar
• 1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise
• ¾ tsp. vanilla extract
• Pinch of salt

1. Pour 1 cup of the cream into a medium saucepan and add the sugar. Scrape the seeds from the vanilla pod into the saucepan and add the pod to the pot. Warm over medium heat, stirring, until the sugar is dissolved.

2. Remove from heat and add the remaining cream (or whole milk or half-and-half), vanilla extract and salt.

3. Chill mixture thoroughly in the refrigerator, for at least eight hours or overnight.

4. When ready to churn, remove the vanilla pod (reserve the bean for another use), then freeze in your ice-cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

The end product was delicious, with a dense, chewy texture – I’d love to have this on hand in my freezer at all times, if I trusted my self control (I don’t).  My favorite thing about vanilla ice cream is that it is versatile. I used this batch of ice cream to test a sample of Szauce chocolate sauce I was recently sent. Szauce chocolate sauce is manufactured in small quantities by a family owned company and includes a mix of local (Hudson Valley Fresh Cream, North Fork Sea Salt) and imported (Madagascar vanilla) ingredients. I was curious to try it out, and I figured that homemade vanilla ice cream made a pretty complementary medium.

Of course I had to try making a doughnut ice cream sandwich with homemade cinnamon sugar doughnuts (recipe here!) dipped in chocolate Szauce:

Mmmm. I was not disappointed. In fact, I think all ice cream sandwiches should be made with doughnuts. There, I said it. A bold stance, I know.

I also had to try plain straight up hot fudge Szauce over homemade vanilla ice cream:

Mmmmm. The Szauce was decadent, not overly sweet (I think dark chocolate fans would especially love it), and perfect when heated up. The ice cream held it’s own quite well also, if I do say so myself. If you’re looking for a simple yet amazing recipe for vanilla ice cream, definitely give this one a try!

Are you a vanilla ice cream fan?