I’ve never made or eaten homemade ice cream that is this silky, smooth, and delicious. I followed the ingredients and directions closely with only one small diversion, I prepared my custard the night before, transferred it to a container with a tight-fitting lid and refrigerated it overnight so I could put it in my little electric ice cream freezer and freeze it the next morning. I then transferred it to another container and froze it in my home freezer for an additional 4 hours or so before serving, so it was nice and firm. If you do this, the days of impatient diners eating soupy homemade ice cream are long gone.
Ingredients
- 1 stick unsalted butter - ½ cup
- 1 ½ cups whole milk
- 1 ½ cups heavy cream
- ¾ cup sugar
- 8 large egg yolks
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon almond extract - next time I will probably decrease this to ⅛ teaspoon
- ½ cup chopped toasted pecans
Instructions
Brown the butter
- Melt butter in a small heavy saucepan over medium-high heat.
- Simmer about 4 minutes or until butter turns light brown and the milk solids on the bottom of the pan release brown specks.
- Set aside; let stand until just warm.
Heat the dairy & dissolve the sugar
- Combine milk, cream, and sugar in a medium saucepan over medium heat; bring to a low boil, stirring occasionally to dissolve the sugar.
- Remove from heat.
Beat the eggs & combine with brown butter
- Beat egg yolks in a medium bowl with an electric mixer on medium speed 1 minute.
- Slowly add brown butter with specks into yolks, and beat 2 minutes or until mixture is thick and fluffy.
Temper the eggs & cook the custard
- Slowly pour one-quarter of hot cream mixture into the egg mixture, stirring until incorporated.
- Pour this mixture back into the medium saucepan; add remaining hot cream mixture over low heat, stirring constantly with a heat-resistant spatula until mixture reaches 170° and lightly coats the back of a spatula. (Be careful not to let the custard boil or the egg yolks will curdle.)
- Strain custard into a bowl through a medium-mesh sieve.
- Refrigerate custard at least 1 hour or until chilled, and preferably overnight.
Churn & freeze
- Stir the extracts into the chilled custard.
- Pour mixture into a 1 ½-quart freezer container of an electric ice cream freezer.
- Stir in chopped pecans, and freeze mixture according to manufacturer’s instructions.
- Freeze 4 to 6 hours before serving.