Comments on: best ever homemade vanilla ice cream

By: Sonya

Sonya — Sun, 14 Sep 2014 22:20:42 +0000

I’ve been making vanilla ice cream for years, flitting between the America’s Test Kitchen Family Cookbook, Ben & Jerry’s (using eggbeaters), and Mixer Bible recipes, so when I saw this Cook’s Illustrated recipe on their website, I just had to try it. For some reason, my husband and I didn’t like it as much, it seemed like it tasted slightly artificial? Who knows… Anyway, it prompted me to do a taste test of the other 3 recipes and we found our favorite, so that was cool. From posts I’ve read at Serious Eats, I think that the exact best ice cream recipe is down to personal taste, from the fat % to the number of yolks to the steeping time for the vanilla bean. I was just curious if anyone else had found the recipe a little odd, hence this google search… but I’m glad that you loved it, and obviously all the taste testers at CI found it superior to their old recipe!

By: Katie G

Katie G — Sun, 28 Apr 2013 15:53:25 +0000

This is incredible ice cream! My husband and I compared it to our favorite premium commercial brand and agreed that it made our previous favorite taste bland and icy. I’m going to need to get a large number of vanilla beans this summer!

By: Paula

Paula — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 14:54:09 +0000

Liz,

There’s something about the actual way that corn syrup interacts with the other ingredients that allows for no other substitutions. I can’t remember the details now, but I know they tried a host of other sweeteners and this is the one they landed on.

Re: vodka, you could certainly try that, although I think a more fool-proof strategy is to just eat all the ice cream within a day or two. Not necessarily healthy, but pretty fool proof.

-Paula

By: Liz

Liz — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 10:55:15 +0000

Sounds great. I am always trying new recipes for the best vanilla bean. Would honey have a similar effect as corn syrup?
I also read that adding a little vodka helps keep it from going really hard in the freezer. No taste change but alcohol doesn’t freeze so the ice cream stays easy to serve.

By: Mario

Mario — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 17:24:02 +0000

Corn syrup usually is used with sugar to cut down on crystal formation. The fructose in corn syrup is chemically different enough that it interferes with the sucrose in table sugar in forming crystals of sugar.

I am not sure if that is an issue in ice cream, but it probably doesn’t hurt. Usually you are trying to cut down on water crystals in the freezing process to keep the ice crystals from creating a grainy texture.

By: Paula

Paula — Thu, 11 Oct 2012 17:12:19 +0000

Farah – You know, Cook’s Illustrated talked about it in their write up on the recipe and it had to do with the creaminess that you get from the corn syrup that you don’t get from just sugar. I don’t remember the details of why, but they tried all kinds of recipes and the corn syrup one won!

Sorry I can’t be more helpful than that!

-Paula

By: farah

farah — Thu, 11 Oct 2012 11:42:26 +0000

please tell me the reason of using corn syrup.

By: farah

farah — Thu, 11 Oct 2012 11:24:52 +0000

i am searching the best vanilla icecream recipe from many days,yours recipe sounds good. The best part is your quick response. I will definately try this and tell you.

By: Sidney

Sidney — Fri, 07 Sep 2012 20:05:17 +0000

Perfect and that’s a great idea for the vanilla bean! Thank you so much for your quick response— now it’s time to make this yummy ice cream!!

By: Paula

Paula — Fri, 07 Sep 2012 17:34:03 +0000

Sidney,

Go ahead and omit the vanilla bean the first time. If you want, you can sneak in a few vanilla bean specks and then add more and more each time.