Week 1- Baking/Dessert: Vanilla Ice Cream

Do you have an ice cream maker? You should have one. I got the KitchenAid standing mixer ice cream attachment for Christmas. (Thank goodness I have a husband who indulges my culinary whims.) It is amazing! I made chocolate ice cream during the last week of December and it was AWESOME! In celebration of my birthday last week, I decided to take on my favorite flavor-- vanilla. I figure if I am going to be an ice cream maker, I need to be able to do vanilla as a starting point. I used this recipe.  I did not vary even slightly... I wouldn't know how. I will say that the tutorial here, which I used for the chocolate ice cream in December, helped a lot. I am not an expert custard maker and got out my instant read candy thermometer in both cases. It was worth it! Both ice creams were delish! I actually used some birthday money from my dad to go out and buy The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz, from which both of these recipes are adapted. This is saying something since I live in Iowa and the temperature has not gone above freezing in weeks. Not exactly ice cream weather, but all four of us have been enjoying it (both on its own and on my birthday apple pie!)