As if anyone needs me to say it, it’s been one hot summer. At least here in Virginia, the heat wave shows no signs of slowing down.

One of my favorite ways to fight back against the suffocating mugginess is relishing some home-made ice cream. Here’s the way I make it:

Basic Ice Cream Recipe

This basic ice cream recipe has no ingredients to make it “flavored” but it is plenty sweet and tasty on its own. This basic recipe can be easily tweaked to create any number of ice cream flavors.

The trick to this recipe is staying patient when heating up the custard. Heat it too fast and the eggs cook. To borrow a term common in barbecue recipes, take it low and slow.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups Heavy Cream (Heavy Whipping Cream)
• 1 cup Whole Milk
• 1/2 to 2/3 cup White Granulated Sugar
• 1/8 teaspoon (or a pinch) or Salt
• 6 Egg Yolks

Equipment:

• Small sauce pan
• Small bowl
• Spoon
• Balloon Whisk
• Fine Mesh Sieve or fine strainer
• Medium bowl (with lid or plastic wrap)

Steps:

1. Combine the Heavy Cream, Milk, Sugar, and Salt in the small sauce pan. Place on medium heat on stove and warm until the sugar is completely dissolved then remove from heat.

2. Place 6 egg yolks in a small bowl. Place a folded towel on the counter and put the bowl on the towel. Using hand whisk, whisk the egg yolks. Placing the towel under the bowl will allow you to whisk without holding the bowl, which will help for this next part. While still whisking, slowly (slowly!) pour about a quarter to a third of the warm cream into the bowl. After that, begin whisking the warm cream that is in the sauce pan, and while whisking slowly pour the egg mixture into the cream.

3. Return the sauce pan and contents to the stove, this time turning the heat on to low or medium-low. Stirring occasionally, heat the custard until it reaches 170 degrees F, or it is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.

4. Pour the custard through a fine mesh sieve into the medium bowl. Cool the custard to room temperature (I like to place in the freezer for approximately 30 minutes). Cover the mixture and place in the refrigerator for a minimum of four hours, but preferably overnight. The colder the custard, the quicker the churn.

5. After thoroughly chilling the custard, use your ice cream maker to churn the ice cream. If using the Ice Cream Maker attachment for the Kitchenaid Mixer, this churn should take about 25 to 30 minutes.

Depending on how much air gets into the mix, you can end up with about a quart of ice cream.

Variations

Vanilla Ice Cream.

In step one, add a few dashes of vanilla extract. The more you add, the more intense the vanilla flavor. I rarely measure.

Coffee Ice Cream

In step three, add half a cup of ground coffee. Let the warm custard steep off heat in the sauce pan for 30 minutes after it reaches 170 degrees then pour through the fine mesh sieve. Depending on how finely ground the coffee is, you may still have some ground coffee in your custard. It still makes ice cream just fine, but you’ll end up with some coffee grounds in your ice cream.

My Equipment That I Use in Recipe:

• Small Sauce Pan from Emeril All Clad Cookware Set.
• KitchenAid Professional 5 Plus 5-Quart Stand Mixer.
• KitchenAid Ice Cream Maker Attachment.
• OXO Balloon Whisk.

And if this has you wanting to up your homemade ice cream game, check out these recipe books:

Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream Cookbook:

The Homemade Ice Cream Recipe Book:

Disclosure: By clicking the links and making a purchase, Amazon may send a portion of the sale to me. This does not increase your cost to purchase.