French Vanilla Ice Cream
Is being made while the cake cools, my baby sister's birthday is the event. Frankly though, I was grateful for the diversion. Politics sometimes just works my nerves. I go into the kitchen for relief.
INGREDIENTS
8 egg yolks (these were left over from the angel cake, I love symmetry in the kitchen)
1 1/2 cups vanilla sugar (sugar that has been jarred with vanilla bean husks)
4 cups heavy cream
2 cups 1/2 & 1/2
2 tablespoons pure vanilla extract
2 vanilla beans halved and scraped (I used Tahitian Vanilla, if you can't get that and use the Madagascar beans, use 4)
1/2 teaspoon salt
Scald the 1/2&1/2, the cream, and the vanilla husks.
While that's happening, beat the egg yolks until bright yellow.
Add in the sugar, salt, and vanilla extract. Beat until well blended.
Take the scalded cream and strain into a measuring cup or small pitcher to catch any vanilla husks and nasty scalding skin.
This is then tempered into the egg mixture, a little at a time, to avoid scrambling your egg yolks. After all, this is custard, not quiche.
Mix until very smooth and a lovely blonde color.
**NOTE: If you don't know the chickens your eggs came from personally, I recommend that you add in a step of taking the mixed custard back to the stove, cook over a medium heat, stirring constantly, until it begins to coat the back of a wooden spoon.**
Put into the container of your ice cream freezer, and add in enough of the cream to bring the level up to the "full" line.
Freeze with lots of ice, and rock salt.
When the ice cream is frozen, you can serve some of it soft, but, I prefer to transfer it to a
larger, container. Freezing for two hours should produce a nice scooping ice cream, that has an incredible, smooth mouth feel.
A dedicated food porn aficianado would have recognised that this ice cream base is essentially a Creme Brulée, that is frozen rather than baked. That realization might be the single best motivation I can think of to get cracking on a Caramel Sauce. . .
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