Homemade Ice Cream – Part 1- Pistachio

For the most part I eat rather healthy.  But on occasion I will indulge if the additional calories are worth it.  I won’t eat a junky dessert, but I will always say yes to a piece of homemade pie. And of course, with a scoop of homemade ice cream! All summer long I’ve been wanting really good ice cream.  Not store bought, but the kind we used to get from a dairy farm, like Buttonwood Farms in Griswold, Connecticut.  All of the ice cream places nearby never have my favorites ~~pistachio and rum raisin.

This weekend I endeavor to create my own, homemade ice cream in the flavors I love.  We own the Cuisinart Frozen Yogurt, Ice Cream & Sorbet maker. This is a worthwhile purchase! I have only used it to create the fast version of vanilla~~ a mixture of whole milk, heavy cream, sugar and vanilla. Viola! 20 minutes later and you have homemade ice cream. It is a very easy way to make your own ice cream.

However, in order to make pistachio and rum raisin I step it up a bit and use a custard based version requiring eggs and heat.  Since I do not think I can put two recipes in the same blog post, I will feature the pistachio recipe today.

I start with a recipe from Epicurious.com, but adjust it after I read all the comments (whole eggs vs. yolks, vanilla bean vs. almond extract, salted vs. unsalted pistachios, etc.).  Ice cream only requires a few ingredients: eggs, heavy cream, milk, sugar, pistachios and almond extract.

I use salted pistachios, that we had to shell.  The only fun part about this is was competing with my husband to see who could shell them faster. You can find pistachios that are already shelled too.

Finely grind pistachios and sugar in a food processor~~making sure you don’t turn it into nut butter.

Add the nut/sugar mixture to the milk and heat.  The recipe says to bring to a boil….I heat it until it was steaming with just wee little boil bubbles. Remove from the heat. Add the almond extract.

Whisk eggs and remaining sugar.  Here is where I alter the recipe~~I add whole eggs, not just the yolks (according to the comments whole eggs make the consistency creamier after freezing).  However, I was a bit surprised when I added the last egg and it was a double yolk-er…What to do?  I just left it and proceed with the recipe.

This is the important part.  You need to mix the eggs in with the hot milk mixture, however, you do not want to “cook” the eggs.  I slowly add a little of the hot milk mixture while whisking the eggs.  I continue to add more milk, making sure I didn’t create cooked scrambled eggs.

Gradually whisk all the egg mixture into the hot milk mixture.  Cook over low heat until the custard thickens and sticks to the back of the spoon-about 9 to 10 minutes.  It’s important to stir constantly during this thickening process.  DO NOT BOIL.

Strain the mixture into a large bowl.

Chill until cold (about 2 hours)  I did this by placing the bowl with the custard mixture inside a larger bowl full of ice and then place both bowls in the refrigerator.

Remove the custard from the refrigerator and add heavy cream and chopped pistachios.

Process mixture into an ice cream maker according to manufacturer’s instructions.

Transfer to a container and freeze.

The ice cream has a very creamy consistency.

You can adjust the amount of pistachios as you like~~however, the more the merrier for me.

Have you ever made homemade ice cream? Making ice cream from scratch sounds a bit daunting, but it’s hard to ruin anything that has cream, sugar, and eggs in it. To see another ice cream recipe (Rum Raisin), click here.

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Pistachio Ice Cream Recipe adapted from Epicurious.com