​I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream

Yes, we do scream for ice cream around this house. Ice cream is a favorite, and we eat a ton of it. It was a natural curiosity and an abundance of eggs that led me to investigate a recipe for eight-egg ice cream from an email from Mother Earth News. I thought to myself, "How hard can it be to make ice cream?" It's not.

Shortly after I purchased an ice cream machine, yes, it turns itself, does not require rock salt and ice, just a little freezer space — I found a post from a home economist about why ice cream purchased from the local grocery store stays so soft.

Mind you, I have questioned the refrigerator's freezer many times in a concerned manner because I have felt for a long time now that the ice cream is never hard. It worried me a bit because if the freezer can't freeze ice cream, what can it freeze? 

The ice cubes leave a lot to be desired from the automatic ice cube dispenser but we think that's a water pressure issue and not a cold issue. We have since figured this one out, but the ice cream on the other hand... hmmmm. Why doesn't it ever freeze hard? You know that if you have to work harder at digging out scoops of creamy, dreamy vanilla you won't eat as much.
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Well, shortly after my eight-egg ice cream experiment, I discovered the post about why ice cream doesn't freeze anymore. Antifreeze. (This is an updated link from a few years ago and maybe things have changed, you be the judge.) 

Oh sure, this is food-grade antifreeze, approved by the FDA in small amounts. Yeah right, small amounts that accumulate in your system over the years until, well — fill in the blank. Oh sure, you say, we are too old to care anymore, what will it hurt us? Do you deny your children ice cream in the name of anti-freeze? Just let them sit and watch you eat and tell them, it's not good for you. No, you really should do something about it. 

June is Dairy Month, so why not try some homemade ice cream? It's so easy, I'm thinking why didn't I do this before? I can make small batches in a heartbeat and I have discovered that you can mix and match ingredients and come up with your version of BlackJack Cherry... and that was only my fourth batch.

I tried Mexican Chocolate with cinnamon and cayenne pepper; vanilla bean vanilla and fresh strawberry. I can use some fresh herbs like spearmint, basil, and lemon balm ice cream... and of course, I'm going to try apple cinnamon, rhubarb, strawberry, and chokecherry.

In the meantime, start small. Oh, and if you click on the links for ice cream machine and antifreeze you will find a place to purchase an ice cream machine and the blog about the antifreeze. My grandmother would be proud. You can make sorbets, yogurts, and ice milk if you can't eat all that whole milk and cream.

Now if only I had a cow so we could get cream like we used to when I was young.


VANILLA BEAN ICE CREAM
Ingredients:

• 1 vanilla bean
• 1 1/2 cups half-and-half 
• 8 farm-fresh egg yolks
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup heavy cream

Cut vanilla bean in half length-wise. Run the blade of a knife perpendicular to the bean across the inside to scoop out all those tiny delicious seeds!


Add the bean pod and the seeds to a pan and pour in the half-and-half. Heat until small bubbles appear around the edge. Let it sit and steep a bit to absorb all the vanilla goodness. Eventually, fish out the vanilla pod.
In a separate bowl whisk together the sugar and farm-fresh egg yolks.
Start adding the half-and-half mixture little by little to the egg yolks and sugar. Whisk thoroughly after each addition until it's all well incorporated. I've been known to add the cream at this point and be done, but if you want to make surethe eggs are cooked thoroughly you can return the custard to the pan, and heat slowly before adding the cream.

Be sure to strain if you don't want those little bits of vanilla bean seeds, but I left mine in there. It looks more authentic.

Put this in the refrigerator to cool until it has a chance to chill, about 30 minutes, or overnight.

Then, pour it into the ice cream maker and let it stir. It comes out deliciously creamy, decadent, and wonderful. For sundae scoopability, it will need to set up in the freezer for about an hour. You can freeze it for weeks, but it will need to be thawed a bit so you can scoop it — no antifreeze in this recipe.