Last night I had the opportunity to catch Good Eats on the Food Network.  This episode was called “Churn, Baby, Churn” and as you may have guessed, it was all about making ice cream!

Alton Brown shared some “trade secrets” for making excellent ice cream.  He also clarified that the ice cream recipes including eggs are more like a custard and are called New York Style.  While the ones without eggs are called Philadelphia Style.  Personally I prefer Philadelphia style ice creams.  I’ll save the eggs for breakfast!

Here is the Serious Vanilla Ice Cream recipe he shared:

2 cups half-and-half
1 cup whipping cream
1 cup minus 2 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons peach preserves (not jelly)
1 vanilla bean, split and scraped

Combine all ingredients (including the bean and its pulp) in a large saucepan and place over medium heat. Attach a frying or candy thermometer to inside of pan. (see note below) Stirring occasionally, bring the mixture to 170 degrees F. Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly. Remove the hull of the vanilla bean, pour mixture into lidded container and refrigerate mixture overnight to mellow flavors and texture.Freeze mixture in ice cream freezer according to unit’s instructions. The mixture will not freeze hard in the machine. Once the volume has increased by 1/2 to 3/4 times, and reached a soft serve consistency, spoon the mixture back into a lidded container and harden in the freezer at least 1 hour before serving.

NOTE: If you do not have a thermometer, bring the mixture just barely to a simmer. As soon as you see a bubble hit the surface, remove it from the heat. Do not let it boil.

This recipe would work great in the Play & Freeze.  The cooler the mixture and the longer it has had to set, the better tasting the ice cream.  Even though the recipes for the ice cream ball can be as simple as half n half, sugar and vanilla, and the kids will love mixing it themselves, for parties I would suggest making up batches of Alton’s vanilla ice cream and letting the kids add mix-ins to it during the ice cream making process.

{13 Aug 2008} {Tags: }