Home made ice cream
One of the reasons I do so much cooking is that I like to know what is in my food. I am of the opinion that the more natural our food is then the better it is for us! I buy organic where I can and all my home grown fruit and vegetables are grown organically. I try my best to avoid homogenised fats, preservatives and artificial colours. It all started when my daughter was a baby and I started to look at food ingredients. I expect you are now wondering what this has to do with ice cream? Well... I was looking for a organic ice cream in the supermarket before Christmas and was horrified to find that all of the ice creams they sold were full of unnecessary additives, so I decided to dig out my old ice cream maker. It is one of the types that needs the bowl freezing for about 12hours before use and the instructions claim that the ice cream churns in only 30 minutes ( it took an hour! ) but made an amazing batch of vanilla ice cream, much creamier and tastier than anything you can buy in a plastic tub!
I have a Magimix " Le Glacier " 1.5 ltr Ice cream maker ( it is best part of 20 years old but still working!)
Vanilla Ice Cream (custard based)
4 egg yolks
4oz caster sugar
1/2 pint full fat milk
1/2 pint double cream
2 tsps vanilla essence
1. Pour the milk and cream into a saucepan and slowly heat it to just boiling point. In a bowl ( I used a stand mixer ) beat the egg yolks and sugar together and then still beating pour over the milk.
2. Return the mixture to the pan and stirring constantly heat it until the mixture forms a film over the back of a wooden spoon. DO NOT LET IT BOIL or it will separate .
3. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the vanilla essence.
4. Leave the mixture until it is cold before pouring it into your ice cream maker, even if the mixture is tepid it will take a lot longer to churn!
5. The ice cream will thicken but will not look like fully frozen ice cream that you get out of the freezer. It will be more like the consistency of a bought ice cream that has been left out too long, don't let this put you off (see picture below)!Once it has been decanted to a tub with a lid and put in the freezer for an hour or two it will look amazing! When it is needed get it out of the freezer about 10 minutes before eating to allow it to soften slightly. This will keep in the freezer for a good month if you can resist it for that long!
