This ice cream is amazing. As Tim said, we're never buying store-bought ice cream again.


Vanilla Bean Ice Cream

Recipe from "Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home"

Makes about 1 quart

Ingredients:
2 cups whole milk
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon cornstarch
1 1/2 ounces (3 Tablespoons) cream cheese, softened
1/8 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 1/4 cups heavy cream
2/3 cup sugar
2 tablespoon light corn syrup
1 vanilla bean, split, seeds scraped out, seeds and beans reserved

Prep:
Mix about 2 tablespoons of the milk with the cornstarch in a small bowl to make a smooth slurry. Whisk the cream cheese and salt in a medium bowl until smooth. Fill a large bowl with ice and water.

Cook:
Combine the remaining milk, the cream, sugar, corn syrup, and vanilla seeds and bean in a 4-quart saucepan, bring to a rolling boil over medium-high heat, and boil for 4 minutes. Remove from the heat and gradually whisk in the cornstarch slurry. Bring the mixture back to a boil over medium-high heat and cook, stirring with a heatproof spatial, until slightly thickened, about 1 minute. Remove from heat.

Chill:
Gradually whisk the hot milk mixture into the cream cheese and smooth. Pour the mixture into a 1-gallon Ziploc freezer bag and submerge the sealed bag in the ice bath. Let stand, adding more ice as necessary, until cold, about 30 minutes.

Freeze:
Remove the vanilla bean. Pour the ice cream base into the frozen canister and spin unit thick and creamy. Pack the ice cream into a storage container, press a sheet of parchment directly against the surface and seal with an airtight lid. Freeze in the coldes part of your freezer until firm, at least 4 hours.