My kids’ all time favourite desert in summer is ice cream. I would end up with heaps of plastic ice cream containers at the end of the season. They are reused mostly, however the thing I didn’t like about buying ice cream was the ingredients list: artificial colours, flavours etc. Commercial one is full of air and that’s why it’s sold by volume instead by weight.

So when my mum asked me what we would like for Christmas, the answer was ice cream machine. In fact, we bought her one more than ten years ago – that’s where my inspiration came from.

Since Christmas I made about ten different flavours, and the taste of homemade ice cream, sorbet and frozen yoghurt is just sensational! I’m in control of the ingredients, fat content and there are less plastic containers to recycle. Kids actually eat less in quantity as it’s bursting with flavour.

I will post several recipes, but let’s start with a classic: Vanilla ice cream! The flavour is rich, creamy and satisfying. It’s best to start making the custard base one day ahead and chill it really good.

Here is the homemade vanilla ice cream recipe:

• 1 cup of milk
• 1 table spoon vanilla sugar
• ½ vanilla bean
• 4 egg yolks
• 50 grams (1.76 oz) of sugar
• ½ cup cream.

Method:

• Split the vanilla bean, scrape the seeds and put both the bean and the seeds in a pot with milk
• Add vanilla sugar, bring to boil and take off the fire to rest about 10 minutes to infuse the flavour
• Beat the egg yolks and sugar until pale and creamy
• Take the vanilla bean out of the milk and pour the milk into the egg mixture stirring continuously
• Return the mixture into the pan and stir constantly on low heat until the custard thickens. DO NOT LET IT BOIL or the custard will curd and separate!
• Let the custard cool down, then transfer into a glass bowl and chill in the fridge for at least 3-4 hours or overnight
• Whip the cream and carefully mix with the chilled custard
• Pour into the ice cream maker and freeze according to the instruction specific to the manufacturer’s instructions.
• Transfer to a freezer safe container and keep up to a month – if it doesn’t disappear that same day!

Few more tips:

• If the flavour is too rich, use two whole eggs instead of four egg yolks or omit eggs all together and thicken the milk with little corn flour
• Don’t throw the vanilla bean after cooking: let it dry and store in a glass jar with caster sugar (very fine crystal sugar) – this is how I make my own very aromatic vanilla sugar!

• Depending on the ice cream machine, you can adjust the quantity to fit the specific model you have.

I do hope this guide has been useful, please leave a comment below if you have any thoughts or tips on how to make homemade vanilla ice cream.