How To Make Vanilla Ice Cream At Home Slideshow
Instead of eggs, we chose to thicken our ice cream with cornstarch. It's a much simpler technique and yields similar results. The rest are basic ingredients for any ice cream base.
The Slurry
Once you're ready to start your base, make a slurry with the cornstarch and milk. By whisking a little bit of the milk and cornstarch together, it makes it easier to incorporate into the ice cream base.
Cooking the Base
Now you're going to cook all of the base ingredients together. Once the cornstarch is added to the other ingredients, you'll want to cook it until thickened and the starchy flavor is gone.
Knowing When to Stop
You'll know when your base is ready when it's nape. Basically, nape means when the ice cream base coats the back of a spoon and a line drawn with your finger comes clean. When that happens, you know the base is thick enough.
Time Is of the Essence
To speed up the cooling process, place the ice cream base in a dish over an ice bath. It's important to have the base chilled before freezing it in an ice cream machine.
Machinery Is Your Best Friend
Using a homemade ice cream machine is the easiest way to make ice cream at home. Be sure to put the bowl of the ice cream maker in the freezer a day before so it's chilled thoroughly.
Churning Time
Churn the ice cream until it is thick and frozen. It usually takes about 20 minutes on a home machine. If you're adding syrup to your ice cream, drizzle it in during the last 10 minutes. You'll want to churn and mix the syrup in a little so that it is fully incoporated. For solid additions, such as fruit or chocolate chips, mix in when the ice cream is finished churning.
Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream Recipe
Once you have the basics of vanilla ice cream down, you can add many flavorings and toppings, or just simply enjoy vanilla.