French Vanilla Ice Cream

So I decided a little too late what I was going to do for dessert for today's New Year's Day dinner with Jeff and Jaime. I decided to do homemade Cookie Monsters. If you've eaten at the restaurant Cheddar's, you know what I'm talking about - chocolate chip cookie, vanilla ice cream, and hot fudge. I say I decided a little too late because I decided I wanted to try out my ice cream maker finally and make homemade ice cream - but I was limited to the ingredients I had on hand. I did find a recipe in my Complete Idiot's Guide to Homemade Ice Cream for french vanilla ice cream that I was able to do with just a tiny swap. We'll see how it turns out. I can't start making it till 12:30 since I had to let my bowl chill for at least 15 hours. So I'll update later with our verdict, as well as pictures of the whole spread.

So I have to say that this ice cream was soooo good. When it first came out of the ice cream maker, I tasted it as when I transferred it into the freezer container and it was quite sweet. But after sitting in the freezer for a few hours, it tasted perfect. Definitely a recipe I'll make again. Jeff and Jaime thought it was really good, too. They'd made one or two different vanilla ice creams that were so rich and sweet you couldn't eat much of them. Jeff and Kevin both went back for seconds and thirds if that tells you anything. :)

French Vanilla Ice Cream

5 egg yolks
2 cups half-and-half (I used 2 1/2 cups to make up for only having 1 1/2 cups cream)
1 1/3 cups table sugar
2 cups heavy cream (I only had 1 1/2 cups left in my carton)
2 teaspoons vanilla

Beat the egg yolks and sugar until light and fluffy. I used my KitchenAid.

In a double boiler, over medium heat, add half-and-half and the egg mixture. Stir constantly until temperature reaches 160 degrees or coats the back of a spoon. Do not boil.

Remove from heat, add heavy cream and vanilla. Mix well.

Place a piece of plastic wrap over bowl so you don't have a film build-up.

Cool mixture to 40 degrees in your refrigerator.

Transfer cold formula to an ice cream freezer and freeze according to manufacturer's instructions.