Premium Vanilla Ice Cream

Readers be warned: this is an extremely rich and sweet ice-cream!!! Eat at your own risk! Dear Husband swears it's just like Amy's, if you are from Austin, TX you know what he means!

Ingredients: 

3 cups heavy cream

1 whole vanilla bean

2 large eggs

3 large egg yolks

3/4 cup sugar

Directions: 

Put cream in a medium saucepan. With a sharp knife split the vanilla bean in half lengthwise. Use the blunt edge to scrape out the "seeds". Stir the seeds and bean pod into the cream, bring it to a slow boil over medium heat. Reduce the heat to low and simmer it for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. 

Combine the eggs, egg yolks, and sugar in a medium bowl. Mix it on medium speed until the mixture is thick, smooth and pale yellow in color, about 2 minutes.

Remove the vanilla bean pod from the cream. Pour out 1 cup of hot liquid. With the mixer on low speed, add the cup of hot cream to the egg mixture on slow steady stream. When thoroughly combined, pour the egg mixture back into the saucepan and stir to combine. Cook, stirring constantly, over medium low heat until the mixture is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Strain it into a bowl, cover with a sheet of plastic wrap placed directly on the custard, and chill completely. 

Turn your ice-cream machine on, pour the chilled custard into the freezer bowl and let mix until thickened, about 25-30 minutes. 

Transfer the ice cream into a bowl with a lid on, put it in the freezer for hardening, about 4-6 hours depending on the freezer's temperature. 

Premium vanilla ice cream being served with strawberry pie.

Vanilla bean- it can be found in the spice aisle of your grocery store, or online. Or you might have a great mother-in-law who travels to Mexico and brings back all sorts of fabulous gourmet foods :-)

Scraping out the seeds.

What the seeds look like after being removed from the pod.

Vanilla seeds, bean and cream simmering.

Pouring the soon-to-be ice cream into the machine.

Scooping out the ice cream onto a container, ready to go into the freezer for hardening.