Whisky and Vanilla Ice Cream

This recipe was prompted by three things: a request, a gift and a wish.

A request for 'whisky ice-cream' which was innocent enough and sounded so simple. But there is nothing easy about adding alcohol to ice-cream. To be successful it is best to  regard ice-cream making as a chemistry lesson. Alcohol lowers the point of freezing, too much and the mixture will become "gooey" and won't set.

The gift, was a gift of vanilla, by the talented writer of "Prep" & "Goddess on a Budget". I am not a liberty to divulge what kind of vanilla it was, as it is not yet on the market. But if you make ice-cream, invariably, at some stage you will make a vanilla ice-cream so here a few  vanilla tips, starting with the one to avoid:

Vanilla essence which is often artificial and doesn't taste right at all.

Vanilla extract is second best, on the plus side it is economical, last a long time and does an OK job. But the best is without any doubt the Vanilla pod.

Vanilla pod comes from a type of climbing orchid, make sure to scrape all the seeds as it is rather expensive. Good quality pods are soft.

The wish....No way Jose, I am not telling because if I do, it won't happen.

Whisky and Vanilla Ice-cream

Use a whisky you like the smell and flavour of. I use an ice-cream maker, so the bowl needs to go in the freezer for 12 hours before hand. Be ready to make meringues with the egg white, though they freeze well

300ml full-cream milk
1 long vanilla pod or 2 short ones
4 large egg yolks
100g sugar
300ml double cream
50ml of whisky.

First thing is to heat the milk and the vanilla pod, split in half lengthwise. Bring to almost boiling point and leave the vanilla to infuse for 15 minutes

In a heatproof bowl, beat the egg yolks the sugar until the mixture is pale.

Remove the vanilla pod from the milk and scrape carefully all the seeds in the egg yolks and gradually add the milk.

Now make a custard by placing the bowl over a pan of simmering water until the mixture is thick enough to coat a wooden spoon, you will need to stir all the way through and that can take sometime, the process accelerates at the end.

When the mixture is ready, take the bowl off the heat, stir the whisky in allow to cool before pouring in the ice-cream maker.

Oh, the brown "thing"on the photograph is a dash of balsamic syrup.