Making Ice Cream

Now that spring is here and those long sunny afternoons are returning, it is time to make use of my KitchenAid ice cream bowl. I used to think that ice cream was as simple as mixing milk with a flavor of choice and cooling the mixture in motion. There's a bit more science to it. Real rich and creamy ice cream is made by first creating a custard. Milk is cooked with sugar and then tempered into egg yolks. This is cooked gently for a short while, cooled, and then cream and flavor ingredients may be added. Today I chose cinnamon vanilla.

The result was fantastic. Ice cream, like so many other culinary concoctions, is fairly simple but has the potential to be truly amazing. It is best when quality ingedients are combined with proper technique. My first attempt was a total failure because I let the mixture get too hot after tempering in the egg yolks. The protein coagulated and I could smell the scrambled egg even before I saw the orange chunky horror in my saucepan. I calmly tossed this out and started fresh. The egg-milk-sugar mixture should not be heated above 170 degrees F.
For quality assurance I use good organic whole milk, fresh natural eggs, evaporated cane sugar, real vanilla extract and fresh cinnamon (well, not too old).

It is after this mixture is cooked and cooled that it gets poured into an ice cream "maker". Whatever tool you may have is just a method for gently mixing while cooling. Even after this step, my ice cream needed a couple hours in the freezer to really solidify. All of this tempering and cooling and mixing business is really about one thing: texture. If you are patient and give it the love it needs, this will really pay off. I would also advise not to skimp on the fat because come on, it's ice cream.

Cinnamon Vanilla Ice Cream
Yields One Quart

1.5 cups whole milk
3/4 cups sugar
3 egg yolks
pinch of salt
2 cups heavy cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp cinnamon