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Midwest Frozen Custard

A rich, creamy and eggy ice cream from Wisconsin. Here's how to make about 2 litres of it:

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups of double cream
  • 1 cup of baking sugar / castor sugar
  • 1 cup of full-cream milk / whole milk
  • 2 teaspoons of your finest vanilla extract, sir
  • 1/2 teaspon of salt
  • 6 large egg yolks!

In a large stainless pot, heat the milk, cream and sugar and bit of salt to around 50°C while constantly stirring, until the sugar is dissolved: don't let it "catch" on the pot's bottom, it tastes bad.

The diary mixture is now ready
The diary mixture is now ready

Separate the 6 yolks from the eggs and keep the egg whites to making ice cream cones, waffles, nougat, or a bizzare omelette. Beat the egg yolks until a smooth. 

Beat them until morale improves!
Beat those eggs until their morale improves!

To prevent the egg mixture becoming a scrambled eggs dish, you need to "temper" the eggs by stirring in a little of the hot milk into eggs until it has been incorporated. Stir in a little more hold milk, and repeat until half the dairy mixture is incorporated into the egg mixture. 

Temper-temper
Temper-temper

Pour the whole egg mixture into the stainless steel pot that holds the remaining dairy mixture, stir it and then carefully heat it all to just under 80°C, or when you can draw a clean with your finger on the back of a mixture-coated spoon. Until then, keep stirring the fucker, or there'll be hell to pay.

The "Custard Test"
The "Custard Test" - run your finger over the back of spoon or spatula to check for a clean line.

When the target temperature and consistency is reached, stirr in the vanilla extract. 

Strain the mixture while hot through a fine sieve. There will be some egg curds - discard them, do not squeeze them through the sieve. You now have a perfect mixture to make that Midwest frozen custard.

The finer the sieve, the better the result.
Expect to see some curdled egg - it's OK, but don't use it.
Expect to see some curdled egg when straining the custard mixture: It's OK, but don't use it.

Great things happen to the fats and the proteins in the custard mixture if it stored in a refrigerator for a few hours, or even overnight, and your ice cream maker will churn it into ice cream faster too. But, you could skip this step and just let it cool down if you are in a hurry.

Pour the custard mixture into an ice cream maker (don't overfill!) and let it churn. When ready, scoop into bowls for the immediate consumption of the "Best Ice Cream Ever", or be boring and scoop it into sealable foodware and freeze.