Best Homemade Vanilla Bean Ice Cream

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!

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.

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.

See the recipe card at the end of the post for the full ingredients list and instructions.

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.

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 and refrigerate the custard until thoroughly chilled, preferably overnight.

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

What’s the difference between ice cream and frozen custard?

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.

Can I use vanilla extract instead of real vanilla beans?

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.

Are the egg yolks in frozen custard cooked?

Yes, you’ll be cooking the custard base on the stove to heat up the egg yolks to a safe temperature.

What should I do with the leftover egg whites?

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.

Can I leave out the bourbon?

The alcohol is optional, but adding a small amount of alcohol to homemade ice cream lowers the freezing point, promoting a smooth, creamy texture.

What’s the best ice cream maker to use?

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!

Can I double this recipe?

Technically, yes, you could double the ingredients with no problem. But it likely wouldn’t fit in most home ice cream makers, and you would need to churn it in batches.

How do you make homemade vanilla extract?

Since vanilla beans are expensive, you should never throw them away after scraping out the seeds. You can simply dry and grind the bean pod into a powder, which is fantastic in baked goods. Or, make your own vanilla extract:

• Simply place the scraped beans into a pint-sized jar, and fill the jar with vodka. You should use about 8-10 beans for 16 ounces of vodka, but don’t feel like you need to have that many beans to use right away. Just get the extract started with a couple of beans, and add more as you use them.
• Store the jar in a cool, dark cupboard, and let it rest for minimum of 8 weeks, but preferably for 6-12 months for the best flavor.

How long does homemade ice cream last?

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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