When I was a kid, in mid to late June every year, after school ended, we'd pick the wild strawberries (technically sometimes called Alpine strawberries), get cream from the neighbors' cows, or buy it, and a bag of ice and a five pound bag of rock salt. We'd mix the cream, and vanilla and the ripe berries, put them in the ice cream churn's covered container, surround the container with ice and salt in alternation and then turn the crank to thoroughly freeze and churn the cream until it made ice cream. The trick was having at least two people to turn the churn's crank, and to be careful to not make it too cold. Just cold enough to freeze the cream, slowly, so it was smooth without lumpy ice crystals, but hard enough to eat with a spoon.

It was the best ice cream I've ever had.

Later in life, I bought one of those small electric ice cream makers, with a removal double walled container. You mix the ingredients, and put them in the double wall container which has been in the freezer overnight, at least, then turn it on to churn for a few minutes. It's an enormous amount of fun; you can make sorbets, or ice cream, and experiment with fresh fruit and flavorings. Today, I'm going to be writing about making custard based ice cream using one of the electric ice cream makers with the freezer canister. Later, I'll write talk about how to make ice cream (or sorbet) using willing volunteers (the neighbor's kids work well) and air-tight "freezer" bags. That said, you will have much better results in terms of the texture of the ice cream with a machine; it's easier to control the temperature and the addition of air to the cream, so that you don't end up with lots of ice crystals and ice cream with a grainy texture.

There are two basic styles of ice cream recipes; those that use a custard base, along with cream and flavorings, and those that use only cream, sugar, and flavorings. I'm not fond of the custard varieties personally, (I always taste the egg) but they are more predictable in terms of the "set" of the ice cream, and they do allow you to use a wide variety of flavorings. The custard based recipes have you make a basic egg-custard, using egg yolks (or sometimes, whole eggs), to which you then add cream and flavorings.

This part is important: if you are using eggs in an ice cream recipe, whether or not the recipe tells you this, you need to whisk the eggs or yolks over boiling water in a double boiler as you add the other ingredients. Salmonella, and other issues, are too unpleasant (and dangerous) to risk, and by heating the ingredients just until they are thick enough to coat the back of a spoon, you will destroy microorganisms. If you've been a little unlucky, or didn't whisk quite enough, you might want to strain the custard mixture to remove the occasional lump. Then pop the custard into the freezer for an hour or so chill it down before proceeding.

This is a basic Vanilla ice cream custard recipe. It's particularly good because the vanilla comes from a vanilla bean. It's a great base for adding other flavors, as well.

Vanilla Bean Ice Cream

• 1 quart heavy cream
• 1 1/4 cups milk
• 1 vanilla bean, split and scraped
• 1 1/4 cups white sugar, divided
• 10 egg yolks
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Procedure

1. Split the vanilla bean down the middle with a sharp paring knife, and scrape out the lining. Cut the bean into several pieces.
2. Using a heavy saucepan and medium heat, combine cream and milk, stirring it with a whisk.
3. Add the vanilla bean and its contents to the saucepan. Whisk.
4. Sprinkle half the white sugar on top of the contents of the sauce pan.
5. Allow the contents to come to a boil, but not actually boil. You may need to turn the heat down or off, to prevent it actually boiling.
6. While the saucepan is heating, whisk the egg yolks together with the remaining sugar and the vanilla extract in a bowl.
7. When the cream in the saucepan has just come to a boil, pour a third of it into the egg mixture, and whisk.
8. Pour the egg mixture back into the remaining hot cream and return to the heat until mixture coats the back of a metal spoon. Do not boil.
9. Strain the custard.
10. Chill the custard in the freezer until cold; an hour should be fine. You want it to be chilled, not frozen solid.
11. Pour the custard into the chilled canister of an ice cream maker
12. Freeze according to the ice cream maker's manufacturer's instructions.
13. The ice cream will be better if you let it "set" in your freezer overnight; the texture and the flavor both tend to improve.

You can add chocolate, or peaches, or fresh fruit, or any number of other flavorings to this recipe after step 11. You can eliminate the vanilla bean if you are making another flavor of ice cream, but the vanilla extract enhances other flavors. There are hundreds of custard based ice cream recipes; your ice cream maker probably came with a booklet that includes several. If you're adventurous, here's a rich, almost too rich, chocolate custard ice cream recipe that also works well as a base if you want to add more chocolate or crushed toffee. This peach custard style ice cream recipe makes a gallon of ice cream, but you can easily cut it down.