Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream

For my first Mother's Day, The Good Husband and The Good Baby bought me the ice cream maker attachment for my KitchenAid Stand Mixer. Did I ever tell you my first job was dishing up ice cream at the local Dairy Queen? It reveals how deep my love of ice cream is. But having the ability to make homemade ice cream was important for another reason. I could not find organic ice cream to save my life. I want TGB to enjoy some on occasion - like her upcoming birthday - but I want to make sure it is quality stuff.
So after I got the attachment, I decided I needed to find a good ice cream base recipe. Google tells me there are two kinds of ice cream, American and Custard style.

American ice cream is the most straight forward since it is usually just milk, cream, sugar and flavors.

Custard contains eggs and has a deeper, richer flavor.

I decided for the first batch I would make a simple American style vanilla ice cream. Most of the recipes I have found call for seemingly large amount of sugar. This is because the taste buds are numbed slightly from the ice cream, therefor the sugar content needs to be strong enough to register on you tongue. However, I made this recipe twice and found it too sweet both times. I followed the recipe to the tee the first time and then reduced the sugar by 1/2 cup the second time. I think I will reduce the sugar by half the next time I make this and see where it stands.

Both TGH and TGB enjoyed it and didn't think it was too sweet at all.

Ingredients:
3 cups whole organic milk
3 cups organic heavy cream
3 cups organic white sugar (I reduced this to 2 1/2 cups and it was still sweet)
3 tablespoons organic vanilla extract

Directions:
~Combine all ingredients and mix thoroughly. Cover and chill over night. Once the mixture is chilled, freeze in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

So now that I have vanilla out of the way, I plan to make vanilla bean and birthday cake ice cream. I also want to attempt to make mint chocolate chip.

But, tell me, what is your favorite ice cream flavor?

recipe by: The Good Wife