Virgin Voyage: Vanilla!

HELLO. I am glad you found this blog. It is a blog about ice cream. Here are some trivia items about ice cream:

--the top 5 ice cream-producing countries in the world:

United States

New Zealand

Denmark

Australia

Belgium/Luxembourg

--the top 5 ice cream-producing states:

California (w00t!)

Indiana

Ohio

Illinois

Michigan

--The biggest ice cream sundae of all time was made in Anaheim, CA in 1985. It had over 7,000 pounds of toppings, was 12 feet high, and contained 4,667 gallons of ice cream.

So, we can see that southern California has a rich history full of ice cream. I live in Southern California. I feel it is my duty as a Californian and as a HUMAN BEING (one with a brand spankin' new ice cream maker, natch) to start a blog dedicated entirely to my ice-cream related exploits. But WAIT. This is an equal-opportunity blog. Ice cream is only ONE of the delicious froo froos made and displayed on this site. I will be experimenting with fro-yo and sorbet, as well. Any other ideas for cold noms that can be made with an ice cream maker are welcome and will be documented for the site. America is apparently post-racial, and as such I am post- frozen-dessert-prejudiced. It's the least I can do.

So let's dive in. Here is a picture of your humble webmistress (or webinatrix?) with the box that started it all. It is, perhaps obviously, from the same photo shoot that spawned the main picture on this page.

Last weekend I decided to take the ice cream maker on a test drive, with classic French Vanilla ice cream. Now, I am friends with all manner of inspiring hippie types that make their own ice cream with a hand-cranked barrel, or by rolling a barrel with ice and cream back and forth until the ice cream is made. This means that I am already starting this project feeling preeeetty lazy. BUT. I am energetic and cute. Forgiven? Great. Let's move forward. (N.B: did you know Clint Eastwood does not say "Action" when he is directing? He says "And....moving forward....")

The recipe for French Vanilla, as I made it, is as follows:

2 large eggs
3/4 cup sugar
2 cups heavy whipping cream or heavy cream
1 cup milk (I used 2%. Later this summer I will experiment with rice, soy and almond milks)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Ok, people, FOCUS. It's go time.

-mix ingredients. Begin by whisking eggs. Add sugar a little at a time, until fully integrated. At this stage, it looks pretty gnarly. Do not eat it.

-Add everything else.

-put into ice cream maker

-turn on ice cream maker

-have a 25-35 minute dance party while the maker is makin'.

-eat ice cream. continue dance party.

It turned out delicious, but soupy. This is because I did not let the freezer bowl fully freeze, AND I did not let the machine run for 35 minutes. I was antsy and wanted ice cream. Basically, if you follow the manufacturer's directions, it will work. Once I froze mine overnight, it was/is perfect.

Enjoy! We did.