French vanilla ice cream (with egg yolks)

A French-style classic: vanilla custard made from egg yolks, milk and cream. Smooth, rich and fragrant.

The base from which most cream ice creams are built. The yolks thicken and emulsify the mix, so the ice cream is smooth even without stabilisers. Some of the sugar is replaced with dextrose, which keeps the ice cream softer straight from the freezer.

Type: Classic cream ice cream · Servings: 8 · Difficulty: Moderate

Equipment

Ingredients

  • 500 g whole milk 3.5 %
  • 300 g whipping cream 33 %
  • 30 g skimmed milk powder (more milk solids = denser ice cream)
  • 100 g egg yolk (5 yolks)
  • 130 g granulated sugar (sucrose)
  • 40 g dextrose (glucose powder)
  • 3 g vanilla pod (1 pod)

Making the mix

  1. Split the vanilla pod lengthways and scrape out the seeds. Heat the milk, cream, milk powder, vanilla seeds and pod in a pan until almost boiling.
  2. Whisk the yolks with the sugar and dextrose until pale and foamy.
  3. Whisking constantly, pour about a third of the hot milk onto the yolks in a thin stream, then tip everything back into the pan.
  4. Stir over a low heat with a wooden spoon until the mix thickens and reaches 82–84 °C (the custard coats the spoon and a line drawn with your finger holds). Don’t let it boil, or the yolks will curdle.
  5. Strain the custard into a bowl set in iced water and let it cool, stirring now and then.
  6. Press cling film directly onto the surface and age in the fridge for at least 4 hours, ideally overnight. Remove the pod.

Method — Compressor ice cream maker

  1. Switch on the ice cream maker 5–10 minutes ahead so the bowl can pre-chill.
  2. Pour in the chilled mix (no higher than the fill line) and churn for 30–40 minutes, until the ice cream has the consistency of thick whipped cream.
  3. Transfer to a chilled container, press cling film onto the surface and leave to harden in the freezer for 2 hours.

Total time: 7 h 35 min

Method — Freezer-bowl ice cream maker

  1. Take the frozen bowl out of the freezer just before use, fit the paddle and switch the machine on.
  2. With the machine running, pour in the chilled mix — no more than two-thirds full; freeze the rest as a second batch.
  3. Churn for 20–30 minutes, until the ice cream thickens. There’s no point going longer — by then the bowl has warmed up.
  4. Transfer to a chilled container and leave to harden in the freezer for 3 hours.

Freeze the bowl for at least 24 hours beforehand (until you can no longer hear the coolant sloshing inside). The mix must be thoroughly chilled.

Total time: 8 h 25 min

Method — Ninja CREAMi and similar machines

  1. Pour the chilled mix into a CREAMi tub up to the MAX line, put the lid on and freeze level for 24 hours.
  2. Place the tub in the machine and run the Ice Cream program.
  3. If the ice cream is crumbly, run Re-spin (many users add a tablespoon of milk first).

Programme: Ice Cream

Total time: 29 h 5 min

Method — No-machine method

  1. Pour the chilled mix into a deep metal or glass container (a baking dish, for example) and put it in the freezer.
  2. After 45 minutes, stir the mix thoroughly with a whisk or stick blender, working the frozen edges into the centre.
  3. Repeat every 30 minutes, 4–5 times in all, until the ice cream is thick and smooth.
  4. Leave to harden for another hour.

Without a machine you get more ice crystals and less air — the ice cream is denser. Every stir breaks up the crystals.

Total time: 9 h

Stages

Preparation
15 min
Cooking
15 min
Cooling
30 min
Ageing in the fridge
4 h
Churning
35 min
Hardening in the freezer
2 h
Total time
7 h 35 min

Plan: what to do and when

The whole recipe takes 7 h 35 min, of which 30 min is hands-on — the rest is waiting you can spend elsewhere.

The making itself fits into a single day — start at least 7 h 35 min before serving.

  • Prepare the mix (weigh and stir the ingredients) — 15 min
  • Cook the mix — 15 min
  • Cool the mix down — 30 min
  • Let the mix age in the fridge — 4 h
  • Churn in the machine — 35 min
  • Let it harden in the freezer — 2 h

Serving and storage

Take it out of the freezer (−18 °C) and let it stand for 5–10 minutes until it scoops easily.

In a sealed container with cling film on the surface it’s best within a week; after that, ice crystals start to build up.

Related recipes

Articles that mention this recipe

And what to make with it

Once this ice cream is ready, it works in these desserts.

  • Affogato

    A scoop of vanilla ice cream drowned in hot espresso. Two ingredients, five minutes, and the only thing that really matters is temperature — of the ice cream and of the coffee.

  • Cola float

    Vanilla ice cream in cold cola. The foam makes itself, and that is the whole point — it just has to rise inside the glass, not onto the table.

  • Ice cream sundae with hot chocolate sauce

    The classic sundae: vanilla ice cream, warm chocolate sauce and whipped cream. The sauce must be hot and thin — a thick one sets into a hard shell on the ice cream.

  • Spaghetti ice cream (Spaghettieis)

    Vanilla ice cream pushed through a potato ricer looks like spaghetti, strawberry purée like tomato sauce and white chocolate like parmesan. It all comes down to the temperature of the ice cream.

  • Baked Alaska

    Ice cream baked in the oven and still cold. The meringue is insulation — full of air, and air does not conduct heat.

  • Fried ice cream

    A ball of ice cream in breadcrumbs, thirty seconds in hot oil. It only works if the ice cream is frozen solid and the coating has no gaps.

How we calculate the composition · What PAC and POD mean · Balance this mix in the calculator

Sources