Vanilla Frozen Custard

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: North American

Keyword: frozen custard, ice cream, vanilla

Prep Time: 33

Cook Time: 12

aging and freezing times: 16

Total Time: 16 45

Servings: servings

Calories: 266kcal

Vanilla Frozen Custard is a rich dessert of cream, milk, and egg custard flavored with double the vanilla and slow-churned until frozen.

The total prep time includes inactive prep for aging and freezing the custard for best results. Begin a day ahead of when you plan to serve it.

Make a slit down the pod's length with the paring knife's tip.
Next, use the back of your knife blade to scrape the pod seeds from the vanilla pod.
Add these scrapings to a 4-quart saucier with the empty pod, whole milk, heavy cream, and kosher salt.

Bring the milk and cream mixture up to steaming over medium heat.
While waiting for the milk to come to steaming, heat the egg yolks and sugar together using a whisk or electric hand mixer until they're pale yellow and fluffy.
The more you whip the eggs, the fluffier the frozen custard will be after churning.
Scoop up a cup of the hot milk mixture once it starts steaming.
Add the hot milk to the whipped egg yolks in a slow, steady stream while constantly whisking to avoid curdling the egg mixture.
Return the tempered eggs to the milk in the pot similarly.
Heat the custard base over medium heat, whisking constantly, until it thickens.
Lift a rubber spatula from the mixture in the pot to test that the custard is the proper consistency. Quickly run your index finger through the custard on the spatula to create a line. The edges of the line should stay in place.

Remove the pot from the stove and pour the custard into a separate container with the vanilla bean still in it. Stir the vanilla extract into the custard using a whisk or the rubber spatula.
Allow the custard to cool to room temperature, then cover the container with a lid or plastic wrap.
Refrigerate the mixture for 12 hours or overnight to allow it to age.

Remove the vanilla bean pod and stir the custard base well before churning.
Pour the vanilla custard base into the frozen bowl of an ice cream machine.
Churn the custard until it is the consistency of soft serve ice cream or about 20 minutes.
Scrape the churned vanilla frozen custard into 1-quart ice cream containers once it reaches the proper consistency.
Place the lids on the containers and freeze the custard upside-down for at least 4 hours.
Serve this vanilla frozen custard on its own, as the base for sundaes, or a la mode-style with your favorite cake, pie, or cobbler recipe.

Replace the heavy cream with whole milk for a lighter frozen custard.
Omit the kosher salt for a low-sodium frozen custard.
You can replace the scraped vanilla bean with 1 1/2 teaspoons (8 grams) jarred vanilla bean paste.

If you notice a small amount of curdling in your custard, you can strain the mixture through a fine-mesh sieve to remove them. However, you'll have to remake the custard if there's a considerable amount of curdling.
Aging frozen custard base gives the protein in the mixture time to plump up, as well as bind with the water, resulting in a fuller, creamier mouthfeel after its churned.
You can churn the custard base after chilling it in an ice-bath for 4 hours, but the results will be far inferior.
If your ice cream machine has an "Ice Cream" setting, use that to churn it to the proper consistency.
It's important to freeze the custard after churning it to give it time to set up.
Use an ice cream scoop dipped in water and shaken dry to scoop the vanilla frozen custard out of the containers and into a serving bowl.
Frozen custard has gone bad when it smells off, has a grainy consistency, or has large chunks of ice crystals on its surface.

Store frozen custard in the freezer for six weeks if you store it properly.
Scoop the frozen custard and return it to the freezer soon after to prevent it from melting and forming ice crystals.
Store your ice cream containers upside down in the freezer.