Ice Cream Recipe Review: Rose Levy Beranbaum's Vanilla Ice Cream

"Vanilla Ice Cream" from Rose's Ice Cream Bliss by Rose Levy Beranbaum.

• My other vanilla ice cream reviews can be found here.

Since I couldn't find the recipe online, I've included a stripped-down version of her ingredient list with only the imperial measurements (but really, you should just buy her book, which also gives metrics - both weight and volume - and instructions/techniques, and ... it's my new favorite ice cream book). I've also shared my own instructions/techniques which do differ from the author's.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup + 2 tbsp sugar
• 2 smallish Madagascar vanilla beans, split and seeds scraped out
• 2 cups heavy cream
• 8 large egg yolks
• 2/3 cup whole milk
• 3 tbsp liquid sugar (glucose or reduced corn syrup)
• 1 pinch fine salt
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract

Place all ingredients except the vanilla extract into a saucepan over medium-low heat, or upper chamber of a double boiler. Whisk ingredients together and then turn on the heat (medium-low) and continue whisking until ingredients reach about 175F/79C and have thickened slightly and coat the back of a spoon.  Remove from heat, add vanilla extract, and set custard in very cold water and whisk for a few minutes and the custard cools down. Place in fridge and chill overnight and very cold. Before churning, remove the vanilla pods.

I used 2 small Madagascar vanilla beans from Vanilla Bean Kings and Vanilla Bean Project Regenerative Organic Certified Pure Vanilla Extract.  I definitely favor using both extract and beans.  

The custard barely thickened, even though I took it all the way to 180F (dangerous, as eggs do odd things above that temp), even 182 briefly (I hadn't intended to take it above 175F, but I was messing with my new thermometer) 

The vanilla flavor is wonderfully strong and the ice cream is silky smooth. I really like this recipe a lot.

Substitutions and Techniques:

• Turbinado sugar instead of white sugar (always) as I prefer the flavor
• Tapioca syrup 1:1 instead of glucose
• Vanilla pods infused in the custard in overnight
• I didn't follow Rose's techniques, but used the no-temper method (outlined above), which is similar but not identical.

Results:

• Same day: silky smooth and wonderfully flavorful. 
• Next day:  silky smooth and wonderfully flavorful. Scoopable, but only just.

Uses:

• I stirred Mi-Del lemon snap chunks into the ice cream and layered/swirled lemon curd in with the ice cream to make lemon-vanilla cookies and cream.  It was very, very tasty.