I Scream! Ice Cream!

Did you know that "Ice Cream", and I Scream" are an example of wordles?  Me neither, until I recently read this fantastic children's book!
I Scream! Ice Cream! A Book of Wordles By: Amy Krouse Rosenthal

Another exaple is "Heroes" or "He Rows"!  or how about "Sorry, no more funnel cakes" and "Sorry, no more fun elk aches" hahaha!
I adored this book of "wordles," also known as groups of homophones (words that sound alike but have very different meanings), maybe even more than my kids?  I thought it was clever, hilarious, and had such creative illustrations!





So, you may remember, my first recipe using my ice cream maker was a delicious experiment, a spicy, chocolaty dream!!  I loved it!  But my fam voted for something more basic = vanilla!  I told them they were "soooo boring!"....but really, once you have a vanilla ice cream, you have endless opportunities of flavour add ins! 
So I complied, and I used David Lebovitz Vanilla Ice cream recipe to make my vanilla custard.  Once the custard froze to an ice cream soft serve stage, I divided the ice cream by two, leaving a plain vanilla for the fam to eat, and then a separate portion for me to play with.
Chocolate and Peanut Butter, anyone?  Yup. I added mini Peanut Butter cups, and a swirl of sweetened peanut butter.  Heaven.

When I first looked at the recipe, I was wondering "what is heavy cream"?  In Canada, we don't use that term, so I wasn't sure where to start!  I was able to find a great cream reference via thekitchn!  I actually found in the comment section of their post, the difference between Canadian and American Creams!  Revelation!  Check it out:

  American                                                                                   Canadian
Half and Half: 12% fat                                                           Half and Half 10%          
Light Cream: 20% fat                                                             Light Cream 5%  
Light Whipping Cream: 30% fat                                            Table Cream 18%
Whipping Cream: 35% fat                                                      Whipping Cream 30%
Heavy Cream and Heavy Whipping Cream: 38% fat

Vanilla Ice Cream
Recipe adapted from Ready for Desert by: David Lebovitz

1 cup whole milk ( I used 2%)

A pinch of salt

3/4 cup sugar

1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise

2 cups heavy cream (I used whipping cream)

5 large egg yolks

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

For Peanut Butter Swirl
1/4 cup peanut butter
1-2 Tablespoons honey or agave
1/2 cup mini peanut butter cups

Heat the milk, salt, and sugar in a saucepan.  Scrape the seeds from the vanilla bean into the milk, and add the emptied bean pod to the milk. Cover, remove from heat, and allow to infuse for at least one hour.
To make the ice cream, set up an ice bath by placing a 2-quart (2l) bowl in a larger bowl partially filled with ice and water. Set a strainer over the top of the smaller bowl and pour the cream into the bowl.
In a separate bowl, stir together the egg yolks. Rewarm the milk then gradually pour some of the milk into the yolks, whisking constantly as you pour. Add the warmed yolks and milk back into the saucepan.
Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, taking care not to burn the bottom, until the custard thickens enough to coat your stirring utensil - I used a spatula.
Strain the custard into the heavy cream. Stir over the ice bath until cool, add the vanilla extract, then refrigerate to chill thoroughly.  Remove the vanilla bean and freeze the custard in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

If adding the Peanut Butter Swirl & cups, if your peanut butter is too firm heat it slightly via stove top, or microwave, and then add honey.  Into your container bound for freezer, add a layer of ice cream stir in peanut butter cups, and then add about 3 Tablespoons of peanut butter & honey mixture and swirl carefully. Add another layer of ice cream, and repeat, so that the cups and swirls are encourporated well!

Transfer Ice Cream to a container bound for the freezer to firm up.  It is recommended to not use glass (freezer burn), I found a "thicker plastic" container worked best.  Because the Ice Cream freezes much firmer than store bought, a cheap plastic container cracked everytime I tried to scoop...but on that note, always take out the ice cream with enough time to thaw slightly for easier scooping!

Enjoy!