Vanilla Velvet Ice Cream

Vanilla velvet ice cream takes the no-cook road to old-fashioned ice cream. No tempering eggs over a double boiler, no straining custard, no hour of chill time before churning. Eggs get beaten until pale and frothy, sugar goes in slowly, then heavy cream and half-and-half stream in cold. Pour, churn, freeze.

The cream blend is what gives this its name. Two quarts of heavy whipping cream build the velvet body, while a quart and a half of half-and-half keep the texture from going too dense. Pure vanilla extract, two full tablespoons, perfumes the entire batch.

This is uncooked ice cream, so it freezes very hard after a few days and has no preservatives. Plan to eat it within ten days of churning, ideally within five for the softest scoop.

Pro Tips

• Use pasteurized eggs to avoid any raw-egg food safety concern
• Beat eggs until they triple in volume and turn pale lemon yellow. That air is what makes the texture velvety.
• Add sugar one cup at a time and scrape the bowl after each. Undissolved sugar means grainy ice cream.
• Stream the cream in cold to keep the eggs from breaking. Slow and steady.
• Let the ice cream temper at room temperature 5 minutes before scooping after a long freeze

Variations

• Sub a split vanilla bean, seeds scraped, for the extract for true bourbon vanilla flavor
• Swirl in homemade caramel sauce just before the ice cream firms up in the freezer
• Replace half a cup of cream with bourbon for boozy, softer-scooping ice cream