Homemade Vanilla Bean Ice Cream
Velvety smooth, creamy and rich homemade ice cream studded with tiny black vanilla beans. You won’t believe how easy it is to make ice cream from scratch!
You may have heard that homemade ice cream is hands down the best.
But frankly, I had a different opinion for a long time. You see, I’ve made homemade ice cream a few times. And each time I hoped to finally agree that homemade ice cream is the best.
But nope, as much as I wanted to, inner me whispered that the store bought ones are still better.
That changed when my former coworker had shared his homemade chocolate ice cream when I was visiting our AZ office. Man, was it good! Of course, I asked for the recipe. And lucky for us, he was happy to share it. Thanks, Matt!
Velvety smooth, irresistibly creamy and rich, this homemade ice cream studded with tiny black vanilla beans is the best. You’ll never buy ice cream from the store again. At least, not plain vanilla one!
I love that slight crunch from tiny vanilla beans! It’s barely noticeable, but oh-so-satisfying! I bought these whole vanilla beans on amazon (<- affiliate link), but you can also use vanilla bean paste.
Yep, I finally said it! Homemade ice cream is the best! You just need to find the right recipe to agree with this statement. You don’t need to look for it tough, because you found it.
Here’re my step-by-step photo instructions.
Hope you enjoy!
Homemade Vanilla Bean Ice Cream
Velvety smooth, creamy and rich homemade ice cream studded with tiny black vanilla beans. You won’t believe how easy it is to make ice cream from scratch!
Yield: About 1 Quart
Ingredients:
- ½ cup (120ml) milk
- 1 vanilla bean
- ½ cup (100gr) sugar
- 4 egg yolks
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 ½ cups (360ml) heavy (whipping) cream
Directions:
- Make sure to freeze the inner ice cream maker bowl for at least 8 hours.
- In a small saucepan, simmer milk and ¼ cup of sugar over medium low heat.
- Using a sharp knife, split the vanilla bean in half horizontally. Scrape the vanilla bean inside and put the scraped vanilla beans and shells into the scalding milk. Do NOT boil the milk.
- In a separate bowl, whisk the egg yolks with remaining ¼ cup of sugar until nice and pale.
- To temper the egg yolk mixture, ladle some warm milk and whisk vigorously as you pour in milk.
- Now, put the tempered egg yolk mixture back into the hot milk. Continue to cook for about 10-15 minutes, stirring frequently.
- Stir in salt.
- Pour the heavy cream into a medium bowl. Place a sieve over it.
- Transfer the custard mixture into heavy cream through sieve. Whisk until well combined.
- Cover with plastic wrap, making sure the plastic touches the custard. Cool completely. The custard can be refrigerated overnight.
- Once the custard is cooled, pour it into the prepared ice cream maker and run according to your specific ice cream maker manual.
- Transfer into an airtight container, and store in the freezer.
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This recipe was originally published on March 5th, 2014.
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Have you ever added water to make it more “ice creamy”? Haven’t tried this recipe yet, but it is the best I’ve seen so far.
Step 9 says to “Transfer the custard mixture into heavy cream through sieve.” Then the next step is just to cover and put into the fridge to chill. Do you not mix the custard mixture into the heavy cream, or is this just implied?
Hi, Tyler. So sorry for delayed response. Yeah, you do need to mix the custard with the cream before covering with a plastic. I’ll clarify it in the recipe.
How much bean paste would you use to replace the vanilla bean?
Hi, Margaret. 1 teaspoon of vanilla bean paste should be good. Hope you’ll enjoy!
Yum yum yum !! This was just like frozen creme brûlée!! It’s rich and smooth and purely delicious.
I made some for a hot apple pie that a friend brought over. I didn’t want to wait for the custard to cool , so I put the bowl in a bowl of ice and stirred it every few minutes until it was really cold and then threw it in my little red cuisinart ice cream maker. I never strained the mixture as it had no lumps that I could see. I also scraped the beans but threw the pods in the pot while the milk was cooking, I just picked them out before I transferred he custard to the bowl to cool..
I am so happy that this recipe can go together in no time at all.. A few minutes to cook the custard, another little while to cool it in the manner that I did and I left mine in the ice cream maker for 30 minutes. It maybe took an hour, or long enough for us to have a few glasses of wine and catch up before sitting down for our snack. Thanks for the wonderful recipe, this was my first time using my ice cream maker and I love it! I can’t wait to try some more recipes.
Yay, so happy to hear you enjoyed the ice cream, Robin! And the apple pie is perfect with this ice cream!! Sounds like you had a great time with your friend.
What a smart way to chill the custard quickly too. Thank you so much for your feedback.
This ice cream is the perfect vanilla recipe. I’ve been trying to find a good one for awhile. I’ve tried others that are too sweet, or not very vanilla, but this was just what I was looking for! The ingredients came together perfectly. Thank you for this yummy recipe!
Rachel, so happy you got to try this. It’s a family favorite and I’m so glad you loved it too. Thank you for stopping by and leaving your feedback.
Hi Shinee, I want to try to make this ice cream. But I do not have an ice cream maker. Any ideas how I can still make this work without the ice cream maker. Would really appreciate your assistance. Colette
Hi, Colette! I’ve never tried this but I’ve heard about this method a while back. You put the chilled ice cream mixture in the freezer, and beat with an electric mixer every hour or so until it reaches the ice cream consistency. The idea is to whip as much air as possible while the mixture freezes. I know it sounds like a lot of work, and that’s why I bought an ice cream maker. Hope this helps. If you do try this, let me know how it works out.
When does the salt go in? Finished the custard, put it in the fridge and then noticed the salt. Read recipe a few more times. Didn’t find it in the directions. Would it be ok to add it to the custard and mix it in before it goes into the ice cream maker?
Oops, my bad, Kathie. Salt goes in at the end of step 2. I’ll update the recipe. So sorry for confusion. I’m afraid the salt won’t dissolve in cold custard.
Hi Shinee,
I made this ice cream yesterday, this was my first time making homemade custard style ice cream. I didn’t have any vanilla beans since I used them all to make my own vanilla extract. But I did have vanilla bean paste, i used 1 TBLS.
Waiting for the ice cream to freeze is the hardest part! We froze it overnight…..
This morning, my daughters had some for breakfast because we couldn’t wait to try it! THEY LOVED IT! This ice cream is so smooth, creamy and super delish!!!
Thank you for sharing this recipe! It was easy and I will be making this again!
Cristine
Cristine, this is the sweetest comment I’ve got in a while! I’m so happy your girls loved it. And ice cream for breakfast is totally fine, right? 🙂 You’re right, this ice cream is smooth and creamy. Thank you for your feedback!
Hi I am really looking forward to making this recipe however my ice cream machine makes about a gallon of ice cream at a time. How would I adjust measurements properly to get the expected outcome?
Hi, Britany! This recipe makes about 1 quart of ice cream. Since 1 gallon is about 4 quarts, I think you can double, triple or even quadruple the recipe. Check the manual for your ice cream machine and see if there is any specification on minimum amount of ice cream to be churned. Have fun!
What is the yield on this?
Hi, Michelle. This recipe makes about 4 cups of ice cream. Thanks!
I’m wondering how my prefrozen mixture is only measuring to a little over 6 cups? ( I’m tripling the recipe) I’m not thinking it will expand to 12 C even after freezing.
Hi, Candace! During churning process, the custard will be aerated and pretty much double in size. In step-by-step photo above, you’ll notice that the custard is only about half way in the ice cream maker. As the machine runs, the custard expands (as it gets more air) and fills the bowl to the top. Hope this helps. 🙂 Hope you enjoy the ice cream.
Oh Lordy!! This is sooooooo delicious! I couldn’t quite make out all the directions on my grandmothers recipe card anymore and this one had same ingredients so I HAD to try it out! We will be serving this for our annual 4th of July party! Thanks so much for sharing this!
Sandi, I’m so glad you found this! Ever since I got this recipe from my coworker, it’s been a staple in our family. Hope you have a fun and safe holiday weekend!
This recipe is absolutely worth trying. My family love it. Measurements are all accurate. Not over sweet. Thank you for sharing.
I’m so happy to hear your family loved it. It’s the #1 dessert requested by my MIL. Everyone loves it. Thank you for your feedback, Ong!
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dont use this recipe. Huge waste of cream and eggs. This soup never freezes or even thickens beyond heavy cream consistency. Huge disappointment.
Melanie, I’m sorry the recipe didn’t turn out for you. I make this recipe all the time, and it never fails. I’m wondering what could have gone wrong. Did you cool the custard before you put into your ice cream machine? Did you make any adjustments to the recipe or any substation? If you can provide more details, we might be able to find the solution. Again, sorry for your experience.