I have made many tried and true dinners and desserts during this quarantine period- more than usual. I was surprised to realize that I’ve never posted our gold standard and absolute favorite ice cream. This is it. 🙂
The recipe is from Food and Wine, contributed by Jeni Britton. I have made it for years! According to the recipe, the ice cream is exceptionally creamy from the inclusion of cornstarch to help thicken the base and cream cheese to make it more scoop-able. I confirm the results. Fabulous.
Yield: 3 1/2 cups
- Fill a large bowl with ice water.
- In a small bowl, mix 2 tablespoons of the milk with the cornstarch.
- In another large bowl, whisk the cream cheese until smooth. (I use a stainless steel bowl.)
- In a large saucepan, combine the remaining milk with the heavy cream, sugar, corn syrup and vanilla bean and seeds.
- Bring the milk mixture to a boil and cook over moderate heat until the sugar dissolves and the vanilla flavors the milk, about 4 minutes.
- Off the heat, gradually whisk in the cornstarch mixture. Return to a boil and cook over moderately high heat until the mixture is slightly thickened, about 1 minute.
- Gradually whisk the hot milk mixture into the cream cheese until smooth.
- Whisk in the salt.
- Set the bowl in the ice water bath and let stand, stirring occasionally, until cold, about 20 minutes.
- Strain the ice cream base into an ice cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturer’s instructions. (I churn it in the ice cream maker for 25 to 30 minutes.)
- Pack the ice cream into a plastic container or loaf pan.
- Press a sheet of plastic wrap directly onto the surface of the ice cream and close with an airtight lid or with additional plastic wrap.
- Freeze the vanilla ice cream until firm, about 4 hours.
Note: 1 tablespoon of Nielsen-Massey vanilla bean paste can be substituted for the split vanilla bean.
thebrookcook 
There’s nothing like vanilla ice cream. 😍