Sunday, August 4, 2019

I Scream. You Scream. We All Scream For Ice Cream.


Let's make ice cream.
Really rich ice cream
Vanilla ice cream.
Flecked with vanilla bean seeds
and further enhanced with vanilla extract.
 
 And then, let's pour on some chocolate sauce
and some caramel sauce.

Ready?
First, you have to break some eggs.
6 of 'em.
 Save the whites for later.  (They can be frozen.)
Or you can make a soufflé for breakfast.

Be careful separating the eggs.
You don't want any yolk in the whites.

We're using the yolks for the custard.
Not all ice creams require a custard base,
but for a really rich ice cream,
nothing beats it!

First, I'll give you my recipe,
then I'll go through the step-by-steps.

Generally, in making ice cream,
you'd use whole milk and heavy cream.
Since I never have whole milk on hand,
 and I do have skim and cream all the time,
I substitute 7 oz. skim and 1 oz heavy cream
for 1 cup of whole milk.
Or to make it even richer, you can go half and half.
Use what you have.


Rosie's Vanilla Ice Cream
7 oz. skim milk
1 oz. heavy cream
2 cups heavy cream
3/4 cup sugar
pinch of kosher salt
1 vanilla bean
6 egg yolks
1 tsp vanilla

In a medium sauce pan, combine skim milk with 1 oz. and 1 cup of the heavy cream, the sugar.
and the salt.  Heat over low until warm.  Scrape the seeds from the bean into the milk mixture and throw in the bean as well.  Remove from heat, cover, and let steep for an hour.

Pour remaining cup of heavy cream into a large bowl and set a strainer over top. 

In another bowl, whisk the yolks.  Slowly pour the warmed milk mixture into the yolks, whisking constantly.  Pour yolk mixture back into sauce pan and heat over medium, stirring constantly, scraping the sides and bottom, until mixture thickens.

Pour the custard through the strainer, pressing with a spatula, and stir it into the cup of cream.  Put the vanilla bean into the custard mixture, pour in the extract, and chill thoroughly in the fridge.  

When chilled, remove the bean and churn in an ice cream maker.

For the step-by-steps:




Use a small, sharp knife to scrape the seeds out of the vanilla bean.

Add the bean and the seeds to the milk, sugar, and cream mixture.
Heat.

Pour the heated mixture into the yolks, whisking.



Pour the custard mixture back into the saucepan and ...
... heat, stirring constantly, until thickened.


Use a spatula to scrape the mixture from the sides and bottom.






Stir and heat until thickened.
Mixture should coat your spatula.

Pour thickened custard through a sieve 
into the remaining cup of cream.



Press custard through the sieve.





Add in the vanilla bean and chill before processing.




When thoroughly chilled, 
remove the bean
and process in an ice cream maker.
Perfection!
You can serve as is...
... or drizzle some homemade chocolate syrup over top.









Chocolate and caramel!
Make your own chocolate sauce. 
 It's so simple and so much better than anything you can buy.

I don't even have a "recipe" for chocolate sauce.
I just get a small saucepan and throw in some
semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, some cream and/or milk,
some sugar and/or corn syrup, and some vanilla.
Heat it up, stir it, and be done with it.
And the best thing about it
is that it keeps getting better through subsequent heatings-up.
Maybe, if I really HAD to give out measurements,
I'd say:
around 8 oz. good quality chocolate (bittersweet or semisweet)
around a cup of cream
1/2 cup sugar
1 TB vanilla
Stir over low heat until sugar is dissolved
and mixture starts to simmer.
Remove from heat and spoon onto ice cream when syrup is warm.

If all you have is unsweetened chocolate,
simply amp up the sugar.

Now, as far as caramel goes,
it can be tricky.
When you're watching sugar melt in a sauce pan,
it can go from that perfect amber color
to a burned disaster rather quickly.
So, I've taken the worry out of caramel.

This, my friends, is caramel-for-dummies.

Caramel Sauce
1 stick unsalted butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 TB water
1/4 tsp kosher salt
Combine all ingredients and
melt butter over low heat.
Turn up heat a bit and
let mixture boil for 5 minutes,
stirring occasionally.
Lower heat.
Pour in 1 5-oz. can  evaporated milk
and 1 TB vanilla.
It will bubble and steam.
Not to worry.
Stir until smooth and remove from heat.





I LOVE ice cream!

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