Real Vanilla Bean

  We got a fresh supply of real vanilla beans in the bake lab this week. Because I am the luckiest bake lab manager ever, I get to reap the rewards of random, not so common, product donations. I've never seen them used in the lab except for the two times Dave cut into them to show the lab students their very first vanilla bean. Anyway, what does a girl do with her supply of fresh vanilla beans? Make real vanilla bean ice cream of course! 

The ingredients chosen: Vanilla beans, Hildebrand Farms local fresh whole milk, eggs, sweetened condensed milk, directions from The Ultimate Ice Cream Book.

Step 1: Cut open vanilla bean and scrape out those delectable beans. 

It's definitely a process that will without a doubt end with your hands smelling like amazing vanilla for quite some time. I went ahead and stuck all the seeds and the pod into my simmering milk. 

The bean pods were removed after a short simmer. After adding the eggs and cooking until thickened, I added the sweetened condensed milk and it turned into this goodness. I think it looks a little yellow and quite honestly, I'm not digging the sweetened condensed milk flavor it gave. To offset that, I added more vanilla beans. That would be a total of three beans. Into the fridge it went for an afternoon of chilling before the gathering and it's birth into ice cream.

And on a fabulous evening in Abilene, Kansas we enjoyed Real Vanilla Bean ice cream. I think next time I'll try another recipe, probably throwing out all the stops and going for heavy cream, but it was still devoured.

The final creation. I almost forgot to take a picture. It was pretty darn tasty and made complete enjoyed with new friends. I think that they are slowly but surely realizing that I rarely do anything the easy way. I mean who goes to backyard weiner roast parties with an ice cream maker, ice cream ready for the maker, homemade pickles, jicama slaw, and salsa in tow? I do.