Vanilla Bean Ice Cream

After Christmas sales proved to be a good thing for me this year. I bought myself a Cuisinart Ice cream maker in blue of course (my favourite colour since forever). I have been experimenting with several sorbets but my faves I must admit are fresh mango and of course lemon. I am just waiting for the lemon tree to ripen as it is full of lemons which means lots of lemon recipes including lemon sorbet. might even make some for friends as gifts this time!

So I branched out. I am over the Soy So good vanilla ice cream and thought I wonder if I could make a true vanilla bean ice cream that tastes as good or even better than shop bought. I have had some vanilla bean sitting in my herb cupboard for over a year and felt guilty everytime I looked at it. That's it, time to use it.

The ingredients are whole milk (which if you can't handle dairy, you could use soy or rice milk or even goats but I have not tried any of these), granulated sugar, vanilla bean or vanilla bean paste (don't use that watered down cheapy stuff if u can avoid it), and last ingredient is cream!

All you do is beat the milk and cream on a hand mixer on low speed, till sugar dissolves (I added the vanilla bean seeds first to ensure even mixing of the seeds). Then you mix gently the cream to evenly move it throughout. Then it all goes into the Cusinart ice cream churner for 30mins. (It recommends 20-25 mins but I always add five to ten more due to the warm weather). I place a plate over the top in case any bugs decide to swim in my glorious mixture.

I tried it yesterday afternoon when my friend Nicky came around. She approved and said there was enough vanilla bean flavour (she tells me honest opinions, I can always rely on her for this).

Would I recommend a Cusinart machine? Yes I would. BUT only if you are into cooking, like to know what goes into the foods you eat especially ice cream AND if you have allergies to foods, then this is an awesome way to go. I paid $94 for mine thanks to my hubby's bargaining skills. And I store the middle section in the freezer rather than having to wait for it to freeze over night. I can make ice cream whenever I want to. Really simple recipes and if you don't have granulated sugar (which I don't) you can use what I have been using - raw sugar as well as caster if need be.