best ever vanilla bean gelato.

Ice cream is happy food~

Vanilla is my favourite flavour~

Anything that can be eaten in a bowl (or cup) with just a spoon spells comfort~

I'm so blissful right now that I doubt I can establish a proper sentence without "~" but I shall try.

Like I said, I'm a vanilla girl through and through. Nothing beats the pureness of vanilla, not even chocolate.


Gasp. 


I know.

Vanilla is the most basic flavour. Most recipes, cake or ice cream, often start off with a vanilla base and then adapted to suit our crazed imaginations. Vanilla is the simplest, but ironically, the hardest to get right. I can't tell you how long I've searched for that perfect version of vanilla. I tried many shops but I often leave disappointed. Too eggy, too rich, too watery, not vanilla-y enough... I've not encountered that vanilla ice cream... until now.

This is why homemade is best- you get to tweak the recipes to your taste, among other things. I took a vanilla gelato recipe from Scoop by Ellen Brown and did a minor adjustment which is to replace some of the vanilla extract with vanilla bean. This recipe also called for non-fat milk powder. You can read more about its uses here. 

I like this recipe because its not too rich, and because there are no eggs, the vanilla comes through prominent and untainted. In fact, when my mother took a bite, she wrinkled her nose and said, "There's too much vanilla." Oh please, is that even possible? I'll just take that as a compliment.

I don't have an ice cream maker so I did it the long way- stirring the custard regularly at half hour intervals. I did three times of manual mixing and blitz the custard in the food processor for the last mixing. Although the results weren't as great as an ice cream maker's, the gelato didn't take long to disappear.

I made some pine nut brittle on a whim but I let the caramel cook to far. It wasn't bitter but I think a lighter caramel would suit the gelato better. Like Haagen Dazs' Macadamia Nut Brittle! Yum, one of my favourites.

I'm thinking of making another batch of ice cream already. What flavour should I make?