Description

A solid custard-style ice cream base recipe that’s a great jumping-off point for various flavors. Note that this is a base recipe; you’ll need to add flavor agents or riff off this to turn it into a proper ice cream flavor.

Ingredients

Scale

90 g (5 large) egg yolks
480 g (2 cups) heavy cream and 300 g (1 ¼ cups) milk OR 760 g (3 ¼ cups) homemade nut milk (see notes for dairy alternative)
150 g (1/2 cup) honey or 100 g (1/2 cup) granulated cane sugar
1/2 tsp Diamond Crystal kosher salt

Instructions

Day One

Prep the eggs. Whisk the egg yolks in a small bowl and set aside.
Infuse the cream. Add the milk and cream (or homemade nut milk) to a pot, along with the honey or sugar and salt. Heat over medium heat until hot to the touch or 120°F. NOTE: Before heating the milk and cream mixture, add flavor agents like crushed cardamom pods, cinnamon sticks, ground vanilla, etc. I like to add extract, such as almond, vanilla, mint, etc., at the end of the process, once the custard has chilled in the ice bath, since heat inhibits a lot of extracts’ flavor.
Temper the eggs and cook the custard. Scoop about 1/2 cup of the milk mixture out, and, whisking constantly, stream it into the bowl of egg yolks. Repeat this twice more to temper the eggs. Then, whisking the milk mixture constantly, stream in the tempered eggs. Switch to a rubber spatula/large wooden spoon, and stir constantly (I typically stir the mixture every 10 seconds) until it thickens and coats the back of a spoon — temperature should be ~178°F.
Strain and chill. Strain the mixture through a fine mesh sieve into a large bowl or pitcher to catch any egg white bits. Then place the custard base in an ice bath, stirring constantly until cool. Cover the base with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight to cure. NOTE: Once the custard has cooled, add any extracts you want, such as vanilla extract, almond, mint, etc.

Day Two

Churn and freeze: Pour the chilled base into your ice cream bowl and churn according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Mine takes about 20 minutes to churn up – it should be the consistency of soft serve. Pop the ice cream into your container (I like to freeze the container ahead of time), place a parchment round on top (this helps prevent crystallization), and freeze for at least 4 hours, ideally overnight.

Notes

Make the homemade nut milk by blending 4 cups (910 g) of water with 1 1/2 cups (215 g) of raw, unsalted cashews and 1 cup (140 g) of raw, unsalted almonds on high for 1 minute and 30 seconds or until super creamy and smooth. Strain in a nut milk bag and store in a glass jar. It’ll keep well for 5-6 days, so feel free to make this ahead of time.

Alternatively, swap the heavy cream and milk for equal parts of a store-bought dairy-free heavy cream and milk. Califia heavy cream is my go-to non-dairy heavy cream. For milk, any creamy cashew milk or coconut milk works — such as Elmhurst’s cashew milk, Califia’s coconut milk, or even my homemade house blend milk.