I love ice cream. What’s not to love? It is a nice sweet, cool treat, that isn’t too heavy, but can be created in an array of palate pleasing flavours. Pure pleasure. When I was diagnosed with celiacs disease, I was rather surprised to read that many ice creams contained wheat. Ugh, how could that be? How could my favorite melting treat have gluten in it? I did some research, and found that some ice creams don’t. However, none of the fun flavours were gluten free.
I went out and bought myself an ice cream maker, knowing that I could take my gluten-free Oreo cookies and make myself some cookies & cream ice cream. The possibilities are endless with this little wonderful machine. I’m thankful that it is only a small machine, making only 1 1/2 quarts at a time. This lets us all taste the bounty once or twice, and then move onto the next flavour adventure.
Now, I know that I said that the “boring old” standby of vanilla flavoured ice cream was available as gluten free, but it’s not nearly as good as this ice cream. This ice cream contains vanilla beans, is made from fresh ingredients, and is absolutely amazing when eaten shortly after being churned. I wanted to start with the basic vanilla recipe, knowing that I would be able to tweak that recipe to make any kind of ice cream my little gluten-free heart desired.
This recipe comes from the manual that came with my little Hamilton Beach Ice Cream and Frozen Yogurt Maker. Worth trying out, I can’t wait to do some more experimenting, especially with so much fresh fruit in season now.
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Ingredients:
3/4 cup sugar
1/8 tsp salt
1 3/4 cups whole milk
1 vanilla bean, split & scraped out (optional, but SO good!)
2 large eggs, beaten
1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
Directions:
1. In a heavy saucepan, combine sugar, salt, vanilla bean seeds (and pod for flavour) and milk. Cook over medium heat stirring occasionally until mixture is steaming. Reduce heat to low.
2. In medium bowl, slightly beat eggs. Slowly whisk half of the hot mixture into the eggs and pour back into saucepan. Cook over medium-low heat until slightly thick, about 3 minutes. Remove vanilla bean. Remove from heat and refrigerate until chilled or overnight.
3. When ready to freeze, stir in heavy cream and vanilla extract into the chilled custard mixture. Start ice cream maker and pour mixture through hole in lid. Freeze until desired consistency is reached.
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bakersbakery says
Good Morning Jeanine!
That ice cream looks beautiful.
I know a lot of ice cream recipes do call for egg yolks. I haven’t tried it yet, but I think it makes a richer ice cream. There are plenty of recipes that leave the eggs out. The ones on my blog are eggless and still wonderfully creamy and rich.
Like you, I started with vanilla and went from there. 🙂
Susan says
Your ice cream looks WONDERFUL and your picture is great. Makes me want to go out and buy that little ice cream maker!!
Jeanine says
Bakersbakery – Thanks for the reply! I did try one ice cream recipe without the eggs, and it was downright delicious as well. I’ve seen some that use ridiculous amounts of egg yolks too. I think I will give a recipe a try that uses on 2 or 3 egg yolks, and see what kind of a difference that makes. The homemade ice cream sure is delicious though! 🙂
Mom – JUST GO BUY IT!!! LOL The ice cream tastes great, it’s simple to do, and you can experiment like there is no tomorrow! 🙂 (OK, or you can borrow mine…but only in winter 😉 )
doggybloggy says
with eggs or with out how can you go wrong with ice cream – yours looks fantastic….thanks for visiting
bakingforthecure says
Your ice cream look really really good, especially with all these balck tiny vanilla spots 🙂
kat says
oh, everyone is killing me with these ice cream recipes & me without an ice cream maker. I just put the Kitchen Aid attachment one on my wishlist.
& I'm with you a great vanilla ice cream is just the best
Marilyn (Simmer Till Done) says
Hi Jeanine! That ice cream of yours – it’s so sexy, I’d call it anything but vanilla – really pulled me in. Beautiful!
Jeanine says
doggybloggy – I’ve got a batch going right now without eggs, I’ll let ya know how it goes! 😉
bakingforthecure – I’m LOVING having vanilla beans to play with. The price couldn’t be beat when buying from eBay.
kat – I couldn’t even get a KA attachment, mine is a commercial grade one, and apparently missing the motor in the top. Bummer, had to get a small counter top one, but it works great!
Marilyn, you are TOO KIND! Thank you so much for the kind words. 🙂
Kiriel du Papillon says
There is an interesting article on the use of egg yolks in icecream here: http://jds.fass.org/cgi/reprint/12/3/193.pdf
My personal experience is that icecream made with egg yolks keeps a soft and creamy texture in the freezer; much easier to get out of the box, and I live the rich flavour it gives.
Interestingly, sorbets use egg whites, so that means for every icecream you make, you should make sorbet.
Kevin says
Homemade vanilla ice cream made with vanilla beans is so good!