Wednesday, June 08, 2011

Killa Vanilla


It's a cool 102 degrees in Memphis today.  I kid, I kid.  It's one of those heats where showering is just plain pointless, because you sweat the second you get out.  Memphis heat is unlike any heat I've ever known.  It's wet heat.  It causes swamp ass (for you that don't understand this term...it's when your butt crack gets so sweaty it feels like you've been trekking through the Bayou for a week....appetizing eh?).  Wearing pants in this weather is stupid.  Good luck pulling your pants back up after a bathroom break.  It's hot.  And hot begs for ice cream.  And I've been dying to work with vanilla beans, so here we are!  Vanilla Ice Cream.

Here's What You Need: 
1 cup whole milk
1/2 cup sugar
1 pint of heavy cream (did I mention that this was not an ass friendly recipe?)
1 whole vanilla bean, split in half (don't cut all the way through), seeds scraped
1 tablespoon of agave nectar (optional)
1 tablespoon of good vanilla extract.  Not that $2 crap.  I got mine in Mexico.

Here's What You Do:
Combine milk, sugar, cream and vanilla seeds in a saucepan with a whisk.  Once you scrape the vanilla bean of the seeds, just go ahead and throw the entire bean into the mixture too...this adds more flavor!  Add agave and vanilla extract.  Whisk over medium heat until the mixture is totally combined.  You don't want any sugar granules in your ice cream.  Once everything is combined and the mixture feels creamy when rubbed between your fingers (that's right, play with your food) strain it into a bowl and place mixture into the refrigerator for at least an hour.  I left mine overnight.  When you're ready to make ice cream, just re-mix the contents in the bowl, add to your ice cream maker and follow the directions for your ice cream maker.  Mine is easy.  Hope yours is too.

 Look at all those yummy seeds!  


I left out the eggs in my recipe because something about adding 1/2 cup of sugar, a pint of heavy cream and 8 eggs freaked me out.  Plus then you have to cook it to a certain temperature and I just didn't have time.  But this ice cream is very creamy, VERY vanilla-y and JUST sweet enough (you know I'm not much for sweets). And you can bite down on the little vanilla seeds like you can with Breyer's Ice Cream. mmmmm! 

Enjoy!  And stay cool!   

3 comments:

Andy said...

sounds good to me!!!

Stac35 said...

Where'd you get the vanilla beans from?

Jess said...

I got the vanilla beans at Schnucks. If you look on the top shelf of the herb/spices section, you'll see them. Mine were just in a glass jar with 3-4 beans in it. They aren't cheap! Culinaria is the brand name.

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