Cream and Egg Yolk Ice Cream
Homemade ice cream? It's easier than you'd think! Ice cream is my weakness — how could you not love such a rich, delicate dessert. Lately, though, store-bought ice cream just hasn't lived up to it; something always feels off. So I decided to make my own, and it turned out to be no trouble at all. The only hard part is waiting for it to freeze — though I'll admit I couldn't resist sneaking a few spoonfuls while it was still liquid. There are similar recipes out there where the cream is whipped first and folded in, which surely makes the dessert extra airy, but no matter how I try, store-bought cream never seems to whip up properly for me, and farm cream is impossible to find around here. So I went with a slightly different method instead. It came out absolutely wonderful — smooth, fragrant, with a deep, creamy flavor. Best of all, you can fold in whatever you like to suit your taste: berries, nuts, or chocolate!
Cooking method
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Step 1:
For the cream, I use 200 ml of 20% cream and 200 ml of 33% (heavy) cream.
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Step 2:
Pour the cream into a heavy-bottomed saucepan and set it over the heat. Split the vanilla pod lengthwise, scrape the seeds from one half, and add them to the cream. (Tuck the leftover pod into a tightly sealed jar of sugar and in a week you'll have natural vanilla sugar.) If you don't have a vanilla pod, use vanilla sugar, extract, or tincture — whatever you have on hand.
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Step 3:
Heat the cream until it's almost boiling, but don't let it thicken. While the cream heats, beat the yolks with the sugar.
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Step 4:
Beat the yolks until pale and fluffy.
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Step 5:
Now very carefully pour the warm cream into the yolks.
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Step 6:
Pour in the cream slowly, whisking the mixture constantly. Don't overbeat it, or a thick foam will build up on the surface.
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Step 7:
Pour the mixture back into the saucepan and set it over low heat. Stirring constantly, cook the custard until it thickens. Keep stirring and watch it closely so it never comes to a boil, or the yolks will curdle. It won't thicken dramatically as it cooks — it just becomes a bit denser.
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Step 8:
As soon as the custard has set, take it off the heat and keep stirring for a few minutes so it cools slightly. Once it has cooled, stir in the cognac (or rum).
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Step 9:
Pour the finished custard into a container and freeze for 6–7 hours. For the first 1.5 hours, take the ice cream out every 20–30 minutes and stir it briskly with a mixer — but only briefly, so it doesn't warm up. After that, you can whisk it a couple more times, once an hour. All told, you'll want to stir it about 5 times, though more won't hurt.
- Before serving, move the ice cream from the freezer to the fridge for 15–20 minutes. It will soften just enough to make scooping into portions much easier. Enjoy!
Caloric content of the products possible in the composition of the dish
- Buttermilk - 36 kcal/100g
- Cream of 20% fat content - 300 kcal/100g
- Cream of 10% fat content - 120 kcal/100g
- Cream - 300 kcal/100g
- Granulated sugar - 398 kcal/100g
- Sugar - 398 kcal/100g
- Vanilla - 288 kcal/100g
- Ordinary cognac 'three stars' - 239 kcal/100g
- Cognac - 239 kcal/100g
- Egg yolks - 352 kcal/100g
