Easy American Vanilla Ice Cream

Here's a really nice bottle of vanilla extract. I received this from my friend, Rene', as a gift. I thought it would be great in ice cream.

Simmering heavy whipping cream, whole milk, and sugar to make some ice cream (not a very lively action shot).

Zach and I made One Pot Chicken Alfredo again a few days ago (see recipe HERE). It's really delicious. I hope it's something Zach will make when he's up at college.  The alfredo recipe calls for 1 cup (8 ounces)

of heavy whipping cream, but I've only been able to find cartons which contain 2 cups (16 ounces).  This leaves me with leftovers and I don't want to be wasteful.  I did a Google search and asked something like "homemade ice cream 1 cup heavy whipping cream."|  I found an easy looking recipe for Vanilla Ice Cream and I already had all the necessary ingredients on hand.

In the video for this recipe, the man speaking refers to this ice cream as Philadelphia-style ice cream or American ice cream, because it contains no eggs. He goes on to specify that, if the recipe called for eggs, then it would be French Vanilla ice cream.  I tell you, I learn something new every day!

Easy American Vanilla Ice Cream

Recipe Source/Video: http://allrecipes.com/video/3816/how-to-make-vanilla-ice-cream/

Ingredients

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1 cup heavy whipping cream

2 1/4 cup milk (I used whole milk)

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions

• Stir sugar, cream, and milk into a saucepan over low heat until sugar has dissolved. Heat just until mix is hot and a small ring of foam appears around the edge.
• Transfer cream mixture to a pourable container such as a large measuring cup. Stir in vanilla extract and chill mix thoroughly, at least 2 hours. (Overnight is best.)
• Pour cold ice cream mix into an ice cream maker, turn on the machine, and churn according to manufacturer's directions, 20 to 25 minutes.
• When ice cream is softly frozen, serve immediately or place a piece of plastic wrap directly on the ice cream and place in freezer to ripen, 2 to 3 hours.

The verdict:  Zach likes the ice cream a lot.  He said he never really liked the ice cream I made at home in the past.  It turns out that the recipes I've tried in the past have all contained EGGS as far as I can remember, so perhaps Zach prefers his ice cream without eggs.  Ron found this ice cream to be too sweet and it seems he prefers the ice cream with eggs.  Whatever the case may be, this ice cream was very easy to make.