Friday, February 10, 2006

SHF #16 - A Recipe for Love: Vanilla Ice Cream



When Jennifer from Taste Everything Once decided that this month's theme for Sugar High Fridays would be aphrodisiac desserts, I turned to a trusty spice: Vanilla.

While some might think it's boring, it's in fact an old and widely used aphrodisiac. Indeed, many studies show that the one scent that turns men on the most is.. vanilla. You can read lots more here.

So, what to make with vanilla? Why not go for a classic, simple creamy vanilla ice cream. I got the recipe from a lovely book called "Iskallt" by Elisabeth Johansson, but added another vanilla bean for extra punch. Serve with your favorite addition, or enjoy it as it is. I like to eat it with hot cherries, or with cloudberry jam.

You should start this the night before you plan to it, ideally. And yes, you need an ice cream maker for this particular recipe.

Vanilla Ice Cream

2 vanilla beans
350 ml milk
400 ml double cream
6 egg yolks
200 ml sugar (0,85 cups)

Score the vanilla beans. Scrape out the seeds into a small saucepan, add the beans and the milk and cream. Slowly bring to a boil, remove from heat and set aside.

In a large bowl, preferrably with a lip, beat the yolks and the sugar until pale and very fluffy. Sieve the vanilla mixture into the eggs, and mix well until smooth. Pour the mixture back in the saucepan, and heat gently, stirring constantly. The liquid should reach 85°C - but it must absolutely not boil. Remove from heat, sieve again, and pour it into a clean bowl or pitcher. Place in the fridge - preferrably over night so that the proteins have time to swell. This will help the flavors develop.

When the mixture is properly cold, run it in an ice cream maker until frozen through. My machine takes about 20 minutes. Scoop into a container, place in freezer until ready to eat. This never gets really hard and icy, so you can eat it straight from the freezer.

Tagged with:

13 comments:

Jennifer said...

How lovely! And now I know why vanilla has always been my favorite flavor. Your ice cream looks delectable.

Look for a round up of Sugar High Friday entries by the end of the weekend.

Anna said...

I won an ice cream maker years ago from a recipe contest and forced my family to test quite a few different homemade flavors. I even bought a few books on gelati from a street vendor in Naples for extra ideas...

While real vanilla is a really hard flavor to beat, torroncino is quite possibly the best ice cream ever. If you get your hands on some torrone, smash it into bits with hammer or knife and mix the nougat crumbs into the vanilla ice mixture just before you freeze it. It's heavenly...

Anonymous said...

Du fortsätter att imponera med dina ack så vackra bilder! :-)

Anne said...

Jennifer - thank you so much for hosting, this was a really lovely theme :)

Anna - wow, what a great prize! I have had my ice cream maker for ages - I forced my parents to buy it when I was a kid... And yet I have never made gelato. I really, really should. Torroncino sounds excellent! I imagine you want the "hard" torrone for that - hmm... I have some spanish hard torrone in the cupboard, maybe I should use that..!

Virvla, thank you so very much. Comments like yours make me so happy :)

Anna said...

If you already have hard torrone in your cupboard, you should definitely try gelato al torroncino! Unfortunately. my recipes are in storage in Helsinki, but this recipe gives you an idea about the right proportions. Eggs and milk are delicious on their own, so vanilla is not needed.

Anonymous said...

love, love, love vanilla ice cream! beautiful pic of the ice cream!

Christine said...

Classic.

What could be better?

Deetsa said...

Anybody who thinks vanilla is boring ( and I KNOW they are out there) obviously hasn't had the REAL thing.

Anonymous said...

Looks delicious, Anne! The picture is so pretty. I don't have an ice cream maker, but your post is inspiring me to do something with vanilla beans soon.

Anonymous said...

My very favourite flavour!

Wonderful, Anne!

Kinna Jonsson said...

I'm so impressed by your photo. Lovely!

Anonymous said...

Hi Anne, I might choose vanilla ice-cream as my favourite dessert if I had to... yours looks absolutely gorgeous!

Anonymous said...

Anne,

I love the color of your background! And the dish is beautiful too!

My boyfriend's favorite flavor is vanilla too - I'm sure he would appreciate your ice cream!