Pioneer Womans Vanilla Ice Cream Recipes

VANILLA ICE CREAM - PIONEER WOMAN RECIPE - (3.8/5)

Steps:

• Heat half-and-half and 2 cups sugar in a saucepan over low heat, adding vanilla "caviar" to the mixture. (You can also drop in the scraped vanilla bean, just to extract all the flavor. Make sure to discard the bean before moving to the next step.) Turn off heat when mixture is totally heated. Beat egg yolks by hand or with an electric mixer until yolks are pale yellow and slightly thick. Temper the egg yolks by slowly drizzling into the 1 1/2 cups of hot half-and-half mixture, whisking constantly. After that, slowly pour the egg yolk/half-and-half mixture into the pan containing the rest of the half-and-half mixture. Cook over low to medium-low heat (depending on how hot your stove gets) until quite thick, stirring constantly. Drain custard using a fine mesh strainer, then pour into a bowl with the heavy cream. Stir to combine. Chill mixture completely, then freeze in an ice cream maker until thick. Place container in freezer to harden for at least eight hours. Serve with something chocolate. Enjoy! For the chocolate ice cream: Melt the dark chocolate chips with the heavy cream over a double boiler. When the chocolate and cream mixture is smooth and melted, add 1 cup of the reserved custard and combine. Return this mixture back to the pitcher. (This step is to ease the mixing process to make it easier to pour back into the custard and could therefore be omitted.) Whisk the cocoa into the pitcher. Pour into an ice cream maker and churn as per the manufacturer's instructions. (This will take approximately 1 hour.) For the strawberry ice cream layer: Combine the strawberries, sugar and red food coloring in a blender and puree until smooth (or you can stop just short of smooth if you want a little texture). Pour the pureed strawberries into the final third of the chilled custard mixtures and stir. Pour into the ice cream maker and churn. To make Neapolitan Ice Cream, equally divide the vanilla custard into 3 bowls - one to use as the vanilla layer, one to use as the chocolate layer and one to use as the strawberry layer. Line a 6-cup loaf pan with plastic wrap. Scoop the chocolate ice cream into the pan. Smooth over and place in the freezer for at least 1 hour. For the vanilla ice-cream layer, add the vanilla custard to the ice cream maker and churn according to the instructions. Spread over chocolate ice cream layer and put in freezer for an hour. For the strawberry ice cream layer, pour the strawberry mixture into the ice cream maker and churn according to instructions. Spread over the vanilla ice cream layer and put in freezer for at least an hour. To serve: Remove the loaf pan from the freezer, turn upside down onto a serving plate and remove the plastic wrap. Slice neatly with a knife that has been dipped in very hot water. Serve immediately.

VANILLA BEAN ICE CREAM

Steps:

• Heat half-and-half and 2 cups sugar in a saucepan over low heat, adding vanilla "caviar" to the mixture. (You can also drop in the scraped vanilla bean, just to extract all the flavor. Make sure to discard the bean before moving to the next step.) Turn off heat when mixture is totally heated. Beat egg yolks by hand or with an electric mixer until yolks are pale yellow and slightly thick. Temper the egg yolks by slowly drizzling into the 1 1/2 cups of hot half-and-half mixture, whisking constantly. After that, pour the egg yolk/half-and-half mixture into the pan containing the rest of the half-and-half mixture. Cook over low to medium-low heat (depending on how hot your stove gets) until quite thick, stirring constantly. Drain custard using a fine mesh strainer, then pour into a bowl with the heavy cream. Stir to combine.Chill mixture completely, then freeze in an ice cream maker until thick. Place container in freezer to harden for at least eight hours. Serve with something chocolate. Enjoy!

ULTIMATE VANILLA ICE CREAM

Steps:

• Put the canister from the machine into the freezer a day before you want to make the ice cream. Next day, pour the cream and milk into a medium heavy-based pan, then tip in half the sugar. Slit the vanilla pod down its length with a small sharp knife and scoop out as many of the tiny black seeds as you can into the cream mixture. Cut the pod into three and drop it into the pan.
• Heat the cream and milk over a low heat, stirring occasionally, until it almost boils - you'll see a few bubbles at the edge. Take off the heat and set aside for 30 minutes so the vanilla can infuse.
• Put the egg yolks into a bowl with the rest of the sugar and beat with an electric hand beater for about 2 minutes until the mixture has thickened, is paler in colour and falls in thick ribbons when you lift the beaters. Using a measuring jug, scoop out about 125ml/4fl oz of the cream mixture and beat into the egg yolks to slacken them. Reheat the cream until it just comes to the boil, take off the heat and stir in the egg yolk mixture.
• Return the pan to a low heat and cook, stirring all the time with a wooden spoon, for 8-10 minutes, until the custard is thick enough to coat the back of the spoon. Watch that it doesn't boil - as soon as you see any bubbles about to burst to the surface, it should be thick enough, so take the pan off the heat so the mixture doesn't curdle.
• Pour the custard into a heatproof bowl, then sit it in a bigger bowl one third full of iced water to cool (this takes about 20 minutes). Stir occasionally to stop a skin forming. Put the bowl of custard in the fridge for 3-4 hours, preferably overnight, so it gets really cold.
• Get the ice cream machine running, scoop out the vanilla pod pieces, then slowly pour in the cold custard. Leave it to churn for 10-30 minutes (depending on your machine). When it stops, it is probably too soft to eat, so spoon into a plastic container, cover with cling film, then a lid, and freeze for a minimum of 3 hours. (It will keep in the freezer for 3 months but don't take it out, then refreeze.) Remove from the freezer 15 minutes before serving.
• To make it by hand: in step 1, heat the milk, vanilla, and half the sugar without the cream (the custard will be slightly thicker). At the start of step 6, whip the cream so it's light and floppy, not too stiff, and fold it into the cold custard. Freeze for 3-4 hours, stirring once an hour until almost frozen, then freeze as above.