Basic Homemade Ice Cream

4     egg yolks (make pavolova with the whites!) 
500   ml   half & half cream
500   ml   whipping cream
1     cup  sugar
2     tcp  vanilla extract

Make sure your ice cream freeze bowl is frozen! We're using the Kitchen Aid ice cream maker kit.

Heat the half & half to close to boiling. Set aside; keep it in the pot.

Mix the sugar with the egg yolks until satiny smooth.

Slowly add the warm half & half to the egg yolks and sugar while continuing to mix.

Return the eggs and cream to the pot and bring, just, to a slow boil. Don't overcook this!

Remove this "custard" from the heat. Stir in the cold whipping cream. Stir in the vanilla. Maybe add a pinch of salt.

Chill this mixture thoroughly in the fridge. I do this overnight.

Assemble your freeze bowl and dasher on the mixer. Pour in your creamy custard. Turn on the mixer, on the lowest setting, and stir the ice cream for about 20 minutes. It will thicken and climb up on the dasher and expand to fill the bowl (more).

Spoon your ice cream into a suitable container and freeze it. Enjoy at will!

Variations

• Chocolate: melt a few bars of suitable milk and dark chocolate and add them to the hot cream and egg mixture. I use one and a half each of Purdy's milk and dark bars.
• Dulce de Leche: prepare the dulce de leche by simmering a can of sweetened condensed milk for at least two hours. Add that as swirls when you spoon your finished ice cream into its final container(s).
• Blueberry or cherry pie: prepare a fruit syrup by cooking down a bag of frozen blueberries or a jar of canned sour cherries with some sugar. You have to sweeten it so that it doesn't freeze into large crystals in the ice cream. Chunks of fruit are problematic as they tend to freeze solid without some prior preparation and a lot of sweetening. Separate out the pulp using a reasonably fine strainer. Cool the syrup and swirl it into the ice cream when spooning it into its final container(s). Add broken graham crackers as the pie crust.