On Ice Cream Making

I've tried various recipes for ice cream. They all have cream, sugar, and milk or half-and-half. But some are eggless, some use whole eggs, egg yolks, egg whites; some use raw eggs, some cook them into a custard. I've had varying degrees of success with each one, but I think I've finally figured out my favorite: eggless, with a splash of booze.

A lot of the egg versions, especially cooked eggs, often taste kind of eggy. When omitting eggs in the recipe, the usual method is to temper the sweet dairy mixture to about 170F, then cool it before freezing.

Alton Brown's "serious vanilla ice cream" recipe is a good start. But many ice cream recipes also include a splash of alcohol (brandy, scotch). The reason is that the alcohol has a lower freezing point, and keeps the ice cream from getting too hard and icy. That's usually my problem; the ice cream is great after a few hours in the freezer, but impossible to eat the following day. (I've broken many plastic containers trying to scoop out rock-hard ice cream.)

Great news! Yesterday I made a batch of Alton's recipe, adding 2 tablespoons of matcha (green tea powder) and a splash of white chocolate liquour. It was delicious last night. Today I tried scooping some, and it wasn't hard at all, and didn't need defrosting! I even used a wimpy tablespoons instead of an ice cream scoop, and it worked.

This is now going to be my go-to basic ice cream recipe.

• 2 cups half-and-half
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 7/8 cup (vanilla) sugar (=1 cup minus 2 tablespoons)
• 1/8 cup apricot preserves (=2 tablespoons)
• 1-2 tablespoons alcohol
• any other flavorings as needed (vanilla bean, extracts, etc.)
  

Heat the dairy, sugar, and preserves to 170F; refrigerate until cooled completely (4+ hours). Add alcohol and freeze per ice cream freezer instructions. Transfer to storage container and freeze at least 3 more hours before eating.

A lot of people freak out about the preserves. (Alton's original recipe calls for peach preserves.) Don't worry. It doesn't taste like peach, or apricot. The preseves provide pectin which improve texture. Peach and apricot are great choices because they subtley enhance the vanilla flavor without making it actually taste like those fruits. You can use any preserve flavor you want; if you're making strawberry ice cream, use strawberry preserves. There will probably be some chunks of preserves in your ice cream base; strain them out if you don't want them.

Likewise, use an alcohol appropriate to the flavor of ice cream you're making. White chocolate liquor is great because it's sweet and creamy and doesn't have a strong flavor, and goes well with just about anything. Coffee liquors like Kahlua are good in chocolate or coffee ice creams. And of course fruity ice creams would do nicely with framboise or crème de cassis. The sky's the limit!