When it comes to homemade ice cream, it doesn’t get more classic than a scoop of creamy, freshly churned vanilla bean ice cream. The specks of real vanilla bean not only look beautiful, but they add the most wonderful, most pure vanilla flavor to homemade frozen custard. A hint of bourbon and brown sugar complements the vanilla for the most incredible flavor you could imagine. So get your ice cream maker out of the cupboard – you’ll need it for this delicious vanilla ice cream recipe!
You might also love this strawberry vanilla bean ice cream, blueberry ice cream, and lemon ice cream.
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Why You’ll Love This Ice Cream
So Smooth and Creamy. With the egg yolks, whole milk and heavy whipping cream, this ice cream is decadent, rich, and so perfectly creamy.
Pure Vanilla Bean Flavor. When you see all those lovely black specks of vanilla bean in the ice cream, you know you’re in for a treat!
Easy to Make. While making homemade frozen custard takes a bit of time and planning (cooking and chilling the custard, churning the ice cream, then waiting for it to harden in the freezer), most of the time spent is completely hands off. You’ll only be spending a few minutes prepping the ingredients, and the hardest part is just waiting until your homemade ice cream is ready to eat!
See the recipe card at the end of the post for the full ingredients list and instructions.
Ingredients
- Whole Milk + Heavy Whipping Cream. There’s no getting around using high-fat whole milk and heavy whipping cream. Their richness gives homemade ice cream a smooth, creamy texture and luxurious mouth feel.
- Vanilla Bean. The seeds scraped from a real vanilla bean will give your vanilla ice cream the best flavor. The next best thing to use would be vanilla bean paste, but you can also use a good-quality vanilla extract, too.
- Egg Yolks. The egg yolks add a richer flavor, a more dense and creamy texture, and help to thicken the milky ice cream base.
- Sugar. The sugar sweetens the ice cream, of course, but it also improves stability and helps to maintain a smooth (not icy) texture. In my recipe, I use granulated sugar with just a little brown sugar for a deeper flavor.
- Coarse Kosher Salt. A pinch of salt balances the sweetness and enhances the flavor of the vanilla.
- Bourbon. While optional, a little alcohol lowers the freezing point of homemade ice cream, promoting a smooth, creamy texture. You could use vodka, but I love the subtle caramel flavor of bourbon in ice cream. I usually use Jim Beam or Elijah Craig.
TIP: Since frozen custard recipes use only egg yolks, pour the leftover egg whites into a freezer bag, labeled with the quantity and date. Then freeze the egg whites until you need them for a white cake, meringue or macarons.
Instructions
Cook the custard.
- In a saucepan, whisk together 1 cup of the cream with the milk, vanilla bean seeds, egg yolks, sugar, brown sugar and salt.
- Heat the custard over medium heat, whisking constantly, until it begins to steam and just bubble slightly around the edges. Do not let it boil. Note that it will be very thin, and will not thicken at all.
Strain and chill the custard.
- Remove the custard from the heat, and pour through a mesh strainer to remove any bits of cooked egg.
- Cover with plastic wrap resting against the surface of the custard, and refrigerate until thoroughly chilled, at least 4 hours, but preferably overnight to let more flavor develop.
Churn and freeze the ice cream.
- After chilling the custard, use an electric mixer to whip the remaining 1 cup of cream until soft peaks form. Gently whisk the whipped cream into the chilled custard.
- Pour the custard into your ice cream maker and churn according to the manufacturer’s instructions. During the last minute of churning, add the bourbon.
- Transfer the churned ice cream to lidded containers, and freeze until firm enough to scoop, at least 8-10 hours.
Be sure to read all of my BAKING FAQs where I discuss ingredients, substitutions and common baking questions, so that you can be successful in your own baking!
Frequently Asked Questions
Ice cream is made from milk and/or cream, sugar and flavorings. In the case of no churn ice cream recipes, freshly whipped cream is folded into sweetened condensed milk, along with any other flavorings or add-ins for a very light, creamy and fluffy ice cream.
Frozen custard is made from milk, cream, egg yolks and sugar. It must contain a minimum of 1.4% egg yolks, by weight, to actually be considered frozen custard by the FDA. The egg yolks make for a richer, more luscious mouthfeel. It’s not just the ingredients, though, but also how they are churned. Professional frozen custard machines churn as little air as possible into the ice cream base while freezing it. With less air, the texture is more dense and luxurious.
To get the pretty black specks in your ice cream, you need to use real vanilla beans or vanilla bean paste. But you can certainly use vanilla extract to flavor your ice cream.
Yes, you’ll be cooking the custard base on the stove, both to dissolve the sugar, as well as to heat up the egg yolks to a safe temperature.
There are so many things you can do with leftover egg whites! Make a white velvet cake or an angel food cake, use them for a meringue topping on a cream pie, homemade marshmallows or pavlova, or make French macarons, just to name a few. I usually freeze mine in a labeled freezer bag until needed.
The alcohol is optional, but adding a small amount of alcohol to homemade ice cream lowers the freezing point, promoting a smooth, creamy texture.
I’m sure there are many great ice cream makers on the market, but honestly, I’ve only used the ice cream maker bowl attachment for my Kitchen Aid mixer. I love it!
If you don’t eat it all in the first day or two, homemade ice cream is usually best eaten within about 2 weeks.
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Best Homemade Vanilla Bean Ice Cream (Frozen Custard)
All recipes on Curly Girl Kitchen are developed for high altitude at 5,280 feet. See FAQs for adjusting to higher or lower elevations.
Equipment
- Ice Cream Maker
Ingredients
- 2 cups cold heavy whipping cream, divided
- 1 cup whole milk
- 1 vanilla bean, seeds scraped (or 1 1/2 tsp vanilla bean paste)
- 5 large egg yolks
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- 2 tbsp light brown sugar
- ⅛ tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
- 1 tbsp good-quality bourbon or whiskey, optional
Instructions
- In a saucepan, whisk together 1 cup of the cream with the milk, vanilla bean seeds/paste, egg yolks, sugar, brown sugar and salt.
- Heat the custard over medium heat, whisking constantly, until it begins to steam and just bubble slightly around the edges. Do not let it boil. Note that it will be very thin, and will not thicken at all.
- Remove the custard from the heat, and pour through a mesh strainer to remove any bits of cooked egg. Cover with plastic wrap resting against the surface of the custard, and refrigerate until thoroughly chilled, at least 4 hours, but preferably overnight to let more flavor develop.
- After chilling the custard, use an electric mixer to whip the remaining 1 cup of cream until soft peaks form. Gently whisk the whipped cream into the chilled custard.
- Pour the custard into your ice cream maker and churn according to the manufacturer's instructions. During the last minute of churning, add the bourbon.
- Transfer the churned ice cream to a lidded 2-quart container, and freeze until firm enough to scoop, at least 8 hours.
Notes
- The bourbon is optional, but the alcohol helps to maintain a smooth, creamy texture.
- Homemade ice cream is best eaten within about 2 weeks.
I’ve tried other recipes but hadn’t found “the one”. This is definitely it. So smooth. And. The brown suger addition added something, too. My husband even asked if we could up the whiskey a bit! It very faintly reminded him a a favorite Stranahan’s whiskey brickle ice cream we can get locally.
I’m so glad you both loved it! When I make this, it barely lasts a couple days in my house.