Post #24: Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream...without the machine!

You know how sometimes you just really want some ice cream?  Like really want some ice cream?  Usually when this happens to me, I wander over to the freezer, pull out a pint of Ben&Jerry's, stand with the freezer door wide open, eating right out of the carton.  But this time, to my shock and dismay, we had nothing.  Not even the lazy man's 'one bite left in the bottom of the container'.  This gave me a sad face.  Did I mention I was still in my jammies and couldn't justify getting dressed and ready just to run out for a pint of ice cream?  My conscience would have needed an extra trip to the gym in order to sort that out.

So then I entered that phase of a craving where you start looking for something else.  Something that isn't really what you wanted, but it'll do.  So I started digging in the fridge to see if anything stood out.  Nada.  But I did notice we had eggs, heavy cream, milk, etc...  Could I make my own ice cream with these items?  Surely not.  I don't have an ice cream maker.  Another sad face.  Aw. 

But the craving was too strong.  I needed ice cream.  So I met with my sous-chef, Google, and asked him if I could make ice cream without a machine.  The answer was yes.  But all of the websites warned that it takes forever.  I was willing to give it a shot. 

I used a simple recipe so I could get the best results possible.  Next time, I will try a different flavour, or use add-ins, because I really don't feel like it will make much of a difference in prep.  I found the recipe on food.com, and the original poster says they got it from a Ben&Jerry's cookbook.  While, I wouldn't say that Ben and Jerry will be knocking my door down for me to make this for them, it is a very creamy, rich, and yummy recipe. 

French Vanilla Ice Cream:

2 large eggs

3/4 cup sugar

2 cups heavy cream

1 cup milk

2 tsp. vanilla extract (I used a double strength vanilla extract from Penzey's - it packs an extra vanilla punch!  YUM!)

Directions:

Beat the eggs until light and fluffy

Gradually whisk in the sugar

Pour in the rest of the ingredients and mix until smooth

At this point, you can put your misture in your ice cream maker, put it to the correct setting, and in an hour or so, you'll have rich, creamy ice cream.  But for those of us who live in apartments and don't have the space to rent to an ice cream maker, follow these instructions:

Before you start mixing the ingredients, put a baking dish, pyrex bowl, or anything freezer safe in the feezer to chill.  Mix all of the ingredients as stated, then put in the chilled dish.  Every 30 minutes, open the dish and stir like cazy!  You want to break up any large ice crystals.  The smaller the crystals, the creamier the ice cream.  After you do this every 30 minutes for about 3 hours, leave the ice cream to freeze solid. 

See, how hard was that!?