Happy National Vanilla Ice Cream Day

For those of you who love a good old fashioned plain vanilla scoop...its your day to celebrate and indulge! It always intrigues me when I am waiting in line to order my ice cream and I hear people ordering vanilla. How can you choose plain old boring vanilla when you have the Double Rich Chocolate Chunk Caramel Fudge Swirled Mocha Almond Surpise to choose instead. What makes you want just a scoop of vanilla? Well plain and simple...because its simplicity at its best. It brings back wonderful memories of childhood. It satisfies without it being too much. Funny thing is I am totally in the camp of loving the flavored ice cream with something mixed in but once in awhile I really crave a cone of soft serve vanilla (with chocolate sprinkles of course) and I never regret that decision. It's easy, its good, its refreshing, and its pure.

If you are up for making some of yor own to celebrate National Vanilla Ice Cream Day check out Alton Brown's Serious Vanilla Ice Cream Recipe with  a 5 star rating I truly doubt it will disappoint. Interestingly it has Peach Preserves in it...wonder what that does. One reviewer says, "I find it to be perfect. I agree with other reviews that this recipe is a great "base" for other things. Just today I whipped up a batch of Chai Ice cream using these ratios. Full five stars. Every batch of ice cream I could ever want will be based upon this one." I am totally going to check this one out too. I am not usually a fan of bases without eggs but it got rave reviews its worth a shot.

Happy National Vanilla Day!

Happy National Vanilla Ice Cream Day!

Happy National Vanilla Ice Cream Day! There are two kinds of favorites I am going to write about here...when I have time to make it and when I don't...

When I have time to make it, I use this recipe:

Vanilla Ice Cream

• 4 cups heavy cream
• 5 egg yolks
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla (or 1 tablespoon vanilla bean paste if you prefer)

1. Pour cream into saucepan and heat to just before it begins to simmer.
2. Meanwhile beat the egg yolks and sugar until thickened.
3. Slowly add the hot cream into the egg mixture while beating them together.
4. Pour mixture back into saucepan and cook on low heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture coats the back of the spoon.
5. Strain mixture through a strainer into a clean bowl. Allow it to cool slightly and add the vanilla.
6. Refrigerate overnight (or until completely cooled).
7. Pour in ice cream maker and churn.

If I don't have time to make it? Brigham's French Vanilla all the way. They told me they discontinued it (and I still can't find it on their site), but I keep finding it on the shelves. I'm not complaining!

[Scoopalicious is celebrating National Ice Cream month with a Post-A-Day throughout the month of July!]

Ice cream image by ctechs at stockxchng.