last vanilla ice cream recipe that you'll ever need

Sometimes the simplest things are the best. Like seriously. Not joking.

Best Vanilla Ice Cream like evAr:

1 can evaporated milk
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1.25 c cream
vanilla bean, split and scraped

heat evaporated milk, sweetened condensed milk, and vanilla bean on medium heat, stirring constantly, until it simmers. Remove from heat and in a separate container, add cream. Stir together. Place in the fridge overnight to chill. Remove vanilla bean (and rinse and add to a sugar jar) and strain. Place in your favorite ice cream maker.

Chai I Scream (in pain from the lactose)

I think that my moderate lactose intolerance has helped me over the years. For instance, I would never know the wonders of pizza without cheese if it weren't for the subsequent pain hours later; however, that is not to say that I avoid all dairy products. I am in love with cheese even though it isn't very nice to me. That being said, without the fetal-position-inducing cramps, I'm pretty sure that I would weigh 300000 pounds because I just can't help myself, especially not when it comes to homemade ice cream. I've been meaning to try to come up with a good chai ice cream and I was happy to find this recipe from Oregon Chai.

Vanilla Chai Ice Cream (adapted from Oregon Chai)

2 c heavy cream
2/3 c vanilla sugar
1 vanilla bean, split and scraped
6 egg yolks
3/4 c whole milk
1 1/2 c Oregon Chai concentrate (I used the decaffeinated because that's all I could find)

heat heavy cream, vanilla sugar, and vanilla beans+seeds over medium heat until just simmering and then remove from heat. While the cream is heating, whisk the eggs until they lighten a bit in color. Temper in the simmering liquid a whiskful at a time until about 1/3 of the cream is incorporated to the eggs. Whisk the eggs back to the cream and place over low heat, whisking continually. Heat until the mixture thickens. (The recipe says recommends that you bring it up to 160 deg.) Strain and then mix in the whole milk and tea. Cover and refrigerate for 4ish hours (or until the mix is cold). Make in your ice cream making according to manufacturer's instructions.

By the way, don't throw away that vanilla bean! Rinse off the milky bits and then plunge it into a container of sugar. In a couple days, you'll have vanilla sugar which is good on just about anything sweet!

Meyer Lemon Ice Cream

Meyer lemons were featured prominently at Whole Foods earlier last week and they were screaming my name. It was a rather odd occurrence, being screamed at by fruit, but they spoke to me and I listened. I picked up about six of them with the intention of busting out my brand new ice cream maker attachment for the stand mixer that we got as a wedding present from Dave for the first time.

It was a bit of an ordeal because the bowl was never cold enough because my freezer is awful, but zesting all the lemons was fun. The problem with my freezer is that its temperature is controlled by the refrigerator and the fridge is basically a crappy freezer. Aside from dealing with the ice cream not setting, it was pretty easy when all was said and done. The most difficult part was actually cleaning up my kitchen in the first place, but it was definitely worth it. I won't bother posting the recipe, as I took it from The Chocolate Gourmand, but here are a few pictures of the process.


Four bucks worth of lemons, defeated.


Making a simple syrup out of lemons and sugar. That alone was tasty enough to just eat, but I restrained myself. :)


And here's the KASM in action.