Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream

Put 1 and a half cups of whole milk into the top of a double boiler or a bowl over a pot of simmering water and sprinkle over 1 teaspoon gelatin. When the milk has scalded stir until the gelatin has dissolved. Mix ½ cup sugar with 1 tablespoon flour and a few grains of salt. Add to the milk mixture and stir until thickened. Cover and cook for ten minutes. Beat 1 egg yolk slightly. Add a portion of the thickened milk mixture to the egg and mix well then add the egg mixture to the milk mixture and stir and cook for one minute. Strain and allow to cool. Then chill till fully cold. Beat until very light in colour. This stage can take up to 15 minutes. Beat the egg white till very stiff and then beat ½ a cup of cream until stiff. Add the cream, beaten egg whites and 2 teaspoons of vanilla to the beaten custard mix. Beat until well combined. Pour into freezer container and freeze. When wanting to use just sit on the counter for 5 minutes and then serve as desired.

Variations:

Chocolate Ice Cream

Add 1 tablespoon cocoa powder to the sugar and flour mix for the custard. Don’t flavour with vanilla.

Rum and Raisin Ice Cream

Fold in 2 teaspoons rum essence and half a cup of chopped raisins to the mix just before pouring into the freezer container. Don’t flavour with vanilla.

Maple Syrup And Walnut Ice Cream

Add ¼ cup maple syrup to the milk when scalding and fold in ½ cup chopped walnuts just before poring into the freezer container. Don’t flavour with vanilla.

Fruit Ice Cream

Fold in ½ to 1 cup of pureed fruit just before pouring into the freezer container but do not mix a lot as you want it to simply swirl through the ice cream.

Orange or Banana Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

Add 2 tablespoons of either orange or banana milk shake flavouring to the milk custard mixture and fold in ¼ to ½ cup chocolate chips just before pouring into the freezer container. You could also add chocolate chips to the chocolate ice cream to make chocolate chocolate chip ice cream. Don’t flavour with vanilla

Neopolitan Ice Cream

For this layered ice cream simply make up three different batches of ice cream allowing each flavour to freeze before making the next one. Keep one plain vanilla, flavour one with strawberry milk shake flavouring as for the orange or banana chocolate chip ice creams, ommiting the chocolate chips, and the final layer flavoured chcocolate.

The ice cream can be eaten frozen or for a neat dessert you can unmould it and slice it and put onto plates and allow to thaw completely and serve it with fresh or canned fruits. Because of the gelatin in it, it doesn’t turn to liquid like commercial ice cream when thawed but will hold it’s shape beautifully.