How to Make an Custard Based Ice Cream

Similar to ice cream, custard ice cream is made with eggs in addition to cream and sugar. A custard based ice cream can be made up to one day in advance and chilled overnight, then processed. Always pre-chill your ice makers interior bowl before using. I put mine upside down in the freezer overnight. Shake before using to insure water in bowl is completely frozen.

Today my ice cream recipe is with cinnamon. I’m not a big fan of cinnamon, but we made this in my cooking class with a Skillet Caramel Apple Crisp and it was delicious. Now you can substitute the cinnamon for other flavors. One of my favorite is White Chocolate Gelato with a Pistachio Cream Swirl. Makes 1 quart.

Ingredients:

2 cups heavy cream
1 cup whole milk
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
3 cinnamon sticks, broken up with a mortar and pestle
6 large egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste

Prepare an ice bath. In a medium saucepan combine the heavy cream, milk, granulated sugar, salt, cinnamon and cinnamon sticks. Cook on medium heat just to a simmer, remove from heat and let steep for 30 minutes. Remove pieces of cinnamon sticks.

In a large mixing bowl whisk the egg yolks until they are light in color. Temper the yolks by slowly adding in the warm cream mixture one ladle at a time whisking continuously. When you have add 1/3-1/2 of the cream mixture to the yolks, pour yolk mixture back into saucepan with the rest of the cream mixture then return it to stove over medium heat. Cook until thickens, about 5 minutes. Do not allow it to boil.

Strain custard through a fine-mesh strainer into a new medium size bowl then place bowl over ice bath or refrigerate, until cold. Whisk in the vanilla paste and transfer custard to ice cream maker and churn according to manufacturer’s instructions. Mine has an ice cream button. When done transfer ice cream to a freezer proof container with a lid. I usually freeze mine for 2 hours before using to get the consistency I prefer.