Vanilla ice cream recipe - Recipes - BBC Good Food

Put the milk, sugar and vanilla pod in a pan with a pinch of salt and bring just to the boil. Leave to cool. Swish the vanilla pod around to release the seeds then pull it out (rinse and dry and stick it in your sugar jar) and reheat the milk. Beat the egg yolks together and whisk them thoroughly into the milk. Put the pan back over a low heat and stir until the custard is thick enough to coat the back of the spoon. Keep stirring and don't let it overheat or you'll end up with scrambled eggs. The whole process should take around 8-10 minutes.

Pour the custard immediately through a fine sieve into the chilled cream. Stir.

Pour into an ice-cream maker and churn until thick or pour into a freezer box and freeze. In both cases, freeze it in its box until you need it.

Other flavours Add plenty of chopped stem ginger and some syrup from the jar to the mixture before you freeze. Stir in some crushed meringue and squashed fresh raspberries once the ice cream has thickened. Stir through a thick fruit puree (see 'Goes well with' recipe).