Don't Skip This Important Step When Making Custard-Style Ice Cream

There are several easy ways to make ice cream at home without a dedicated machine: in an ice cube tray in your freezer, shaken in a bag with special salt, even with a handheld mixer. But all of these methods pale in comparison to homemade, machine-churned, custard-style ice cream. Sometimes a few more steps (and a few more dishes) are truly worth the effort.

Custard ice cream, the rich, creamy, decadently smooth variety of the frozen dessert that you'll typically find at an ice cream parlor, does take a bit of time, technique, and trust to prepare. First, you'll heat up your dairy ingredients, which may sound counterintuitive to ice cream. Second, you'll add egg yolks to your ice cream base, cooking them just enough to be safe to eat, but well shy of a cooked egg's consistency. To tackle both these essential steps, you have to employ a sometimes-challenging skill: tempering eggs. Once you master the method, though, you'll be able to tackle more than just custard-style ice cream, ready to dish up a savory, veg-friendly spaghetti carbonara or a velvety vanilla pudding in no time.

If you crack a cold egg into boiling or near boiling water, you will absolutely cook your egg (and in the best case scenario, perfectly poach it). So, as you're heating up half and half, heavy cream, sugar, and vanilla to start a custard vanilla ice cream base, you have to mind how you add your egg yolks, taking care to temper them first.

After beating your egg yolks until light and fluffy, do not add them directly to a pot of hot cream. Instead, slowly drizzle at least a cup of your hot cream into your whipped eggs to raise their temperature (and keep whisking all the while). Once your yolks have adjusted to the heat, slowly whisk all of your egg mixture into your warm cream mixture on the stove. As you stir, your eggs, cream, and sugar will thicken and transform into a show-stoppingly rich custard.

Before transferring your custardy ice cream base into a freezer-safe bowl to chill, you may want to strain your mixture with a fine mesh sieve in case there are any lightly cooked bits at the bottom of your pan. Once your mixture is very cold, bust out your ice cream maker, useful for creating many frozen treats, and churn away until it reaches a perfect scoopable consistency.