Homemade, old-fashioned vanilla custard ice cream, made with a combination of whole milk, heavy cream, half and half, eggs and vanilla.

Old Fashioned Vanilla Custard Ice Cream

I don't treat myself to homemade ice cream as much as I would like to, and when I do, often it's a basic version made in my Cuisinart ice cream freezer, the kind that has the bucket you keep in the freezer and makes a soft serve ice cream in under 30 minutes. That's not counting chilling times and freezing times of course, but it's pretty handy for when you want to make ice cream without all the ice and salt and such... so long as you have the freezer space to keep the bucket frozen.

For those holidays, big picnics, parties and reunions, you'll still need the big batch 4-quart or larger machines, like that pictured below, and you'll need that size for this recipe, although I usually do a half recipe very successfully in my smaller Cuisinart freezer too.

Remember when you had to hand crank these? Often a job delegated to the children, it was pretty neat seeing the end result!

I'm pretty basic with my ice cream flavors, butter pecan and strawberry being my top two favorites. I sure won't turn down an offer of some fresh peach or chocolate or, well, pretty much any other flavor of ice cream either... but good ole vanilla is always the reliable standby. It stands on its own of course, but it's also versatile enough that it goes well paired with everything from chocolate and fruit sauces to cakes and cobblers.

While I do enjoy the easy "cheater" versions of ice creams, often made using condensed milk and pudding mix as the binder, every once in awhile I find an excuse to make a good, old-fashioned, rich and decadent, cooked custard ice cream - and when I do, this is the one.

There isn't much to making a custard ice cream really. You simply make an egg custard, just as you would with a homemade banana pudding, then you chill the custard, preferably overnight. When you are ready to make the ice cream, you simply add in the remaining ingredients and mix well.

Pour the mixture into your ice cream maker and make according to the directions on your brand. This will give you a wonderful soft serve ice cream if you can't stand to wait a minute longer. For a firmer ice cream, you just need to transfer it to a covered container and freeze it until firm. My husband loves it soft but I like it firm and it really is worth all the effort... and the wait.

Of course, the best vanilla ice cream is made with a whole vanilla bean. When you see those little specks in ice cream, you know you've got some great vanilla flavor.

Whole vanilla beans are not a pantry staple for me, however, so unless I buy them with purposeful intent for things like this, I just use good ole pure vanilla extract which is always in my pantry. I wrote the recipe for vanilla extract, but included the directions for vanilla bean in the recipe notes. If you can fit vanilla bean in your budget, use it; if not, vanilla extract makes for a mighty fine ice cream too.

While I'm on the subject of extracts, my preference is to always use natural, pure vanilla extract over imitation, especially where the flavor is so central, such as here. Yes, it does cost a bit more, but if I'm gonna spend time making something homemade and from scratch, I want to use quality ingredients. Like my feelings about butter vs. margarine, there are very valid reasons for this!

{Southern Style Hissy Fit Soapbox Moment Warning}

Imitation vanilla is a cheap product made from artificial flavorings, almost all of which come from wood product run-off from paper pulp factories... and almost always contains the associated chemicals from that process.

Have you ever smelled a paper factory? There used to be a paper mill somewhere in the vicinity of Mobile, Alabama and on certain days you could smell the stench in the air all the way over to my hometown Biloxi on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

Imitation vanilla also has an off putting and bitter taste to me and frankly, like anything artificial, you usually need to use more, often twice as much, to get the true flavor you want. I'm not gonna tell you what to do in your kitchen, so, of course the choice is up to you, but given that, I think I'll pay a little more and stick with the pure version of extract myself, or even make it myself.
{tucking away the soapbox}

Homemade vanilla custard ice cream with sliced bananas, chocolate sauce and chopped walnuts. The only thing missing is whipped cream and a maraschino cherry. It's one of my favorite ways to eat homemade ice cream!

 Here's how to make my old fashioned, vanilla custard ice cream.



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Posted by Mary on July 26, 2013

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