Cold, Creamy and Decadent

I shall keep this post short and sweet.  What more can I say ? The title basically sums it all up.

And yes, you've guess it right.  Its ice cream !

On another note, I can't believe how easy one can make ice cream with the assistance of an ice cream maker.  It's such a cinch to whip this up.  I am so on my way to create my own mini ice cream parlor now. If you are still contemplating whether to invest in an ice cream maker, my 2 cents advise is go for it.  I am currently using ice cream maker which I had borrowed from my SIL, but I look forward to getting one soon.  Hint hint. Christmas is coming soon.

This strawberry ice cream recipe is from Forever Summer by Nigella Lawson.  Try to find the ripest and sweetest strawberries - mine was on the sour side, so my ice cream was a bit tangy.  No complaints though, it sure beats store bought ice cream hands-down.

You will need:
1 generous pint of strawberries
10 tbsp granulated sugar, plus 2 tbsp
2 1/4 cups whole milk
2 1/4 cups heavy cream
1 vanilla bean (can be substituted with 1 tbsp pure vanilla extract)
10 egg yolks
2 tbsp lemon juice

Preparation:
Hull and roughly chop strawberries.  Sprinkle with the 2 tbsp sugar and set aside to steep and infuse with flavour.

Pour the milk and cream into a heavy based saucepan, and add the vanilla bean, split down the middle lengthwise.  Bring the pan nearly to a boil and then take it off the heat and leave to infuse for 20 minutes.

In a large bowl, whisk the yolks and the 10 tbsp of sugar until thick and pale yellow.  Take the vanilla bean out of the milk mixture and pour, whisking the while, the warm liquid over the yolks.  Put the cleaned-out pan back on the heat with the cream, milk, egg and sugar mixture and stir the custard until it thickens, then take it off the heat and pour it into a clean bowl to cool.

Puree the strawberries in a processor, and when the custard is cool, fold in the lemon juice and strawberry puree.

At this point you can either freeze the ice cream in an ice cream maker, or in a plastic tub in the freezer.  If you do the latter, you should remove it from the freezer after an hour and process it again, then put it back in the container for another hour before repeating the process another 2 times.