So Good Hand-cranked Vanilla Bean Ice Cream

The custard

The other night, I was half-watching a Food Network show with my guy when suddenly my ears perked up. The host was making vanilla ice-cream in an old hand-crank machine.

Custard into the canister.

I nudged my guy, who was also apparently only half watching (sitting on the couch always makes our eyes droopy), and said, "Wouldn't that be fun to do?" He didn't respond. It could have been that he was actually asleep ... hmmm.

Well, the next morning, there in the kitchen was an old hand-crank ice cream maker. Apparently, he wasn't asleep! The machine had been his dad's and had been sitting in the garage for probably 30 years. He scrubbed it clean and that night we made vanilla bean ice cream. Yippee!

We used fresh eggs from our chickens, heavy cream, whole milk, a little sugar and and one crazy looking vanilla bean. We cooked those ingredients together to make a custard. Once that was cooled, we poured it in to the steel canister, slid in the paddle and locked it down. That canister is then locked in to the wooden bucket with the handle mechanism and then the fun begins.

We cranked! For about 20 minutes. That's all it took to get rich, creamy, delicious ice cream.

So worth the effort. We've been eating it plain. We topped it with strawberries and blueberries. I even added a few chocolate chips — ok maybe more than a few.

But the best way to eat it is right out of the canister! You can lick the paddle!

We used the recipe from the Food Network's Farmhouse Rules.