Vanilla Bean Ice Cream Revisited

One of the benefits of having a blog is seeing how much you've changed over time. For instance, the first time I ever made ice cream, I ranted on and on about how much I had to do just to produce a decent vat of ice cream custard. I chuckle at my complaints now.

My first ice cream attempt was vanilla bean from David Lebovitz. Since then, I have made many other flavors of ice cream (9 to be exact), and I now consider the process very easy to do.
Now, I'm going to back to my favorite flavor - vanilla bean. This time I'm using a different recipe that I feel is richer and tastier than the first one I made. I made it one other time before, and my colleagues devoured it gleefully. One of them did not even want to share the rest of it with the others, so she found a way to hoard it for herself haha.

In order to make this ice cream even better, I added a teaspoon of vanilla extract to the custard even after infusing a vanilla bean and its seeds. It is so creamy and has a yellow hue to it. Please make this cold, smooth, "vanilla-ful" concoction muy pronto.

Vanilla Bean Ice Cream

adapted from Ice Cream! (thanks, mom!)

1 1/4 (300ml) whole milk
1 vanilla bean (if none, add 1 more tsp of vanilla extract to below amount when you add the cream)
4 large egg yolks
1/2 cup (100g) vanilla sugar (or plain sugar)
1 1/4 (300ml) heavy cream
1 tsp vanilla extract (optional)

Put the milk, vanilla seeds, and vanilla bean in a medium saucepan, and heat gently to near-boiling point. Remove the saucepan from the heat, and allow the vanilla to infuse for 15 minutes.

In a separate, heatproof bowl, beat the egg yolks and sugar, using a whisk or electric beater, until thick and pale. Gradually beat the milk into the egg mixture.

Place the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water, and continue stirring until the mixture is thick enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon. (book's instructions)
OR
Pour the milk/egg mixture back into the saucepan, and stir the mixture until it coats the back of a wooden spoon. (this is what I did). This took about 5-10 minutes.

Remove the bowl from the heat, and cover the surface directly with plastic wrap or waxed paper to prevent a skin from forming. Allow the custard to cool completely by refrigerating mixture for 4 hours to overnight.

Once cool, stir in the cream and vanilla extract (if using), and churn in an ice cream maker, according to the manufacturer's instructions. Serve immediately, or transfer to a freezer container; cover the surface directly with waxed paper or foil, and put in the freezer.