UBS Virtual Cooking Class: Homemade Ice Cream 101

Please register for the virtual class using your UBS email address as this is an internal event. Class will begin on time, please arrive on time.

Please note: This is an VIRTUAL internal event for UBS employees only.

Basic Ice Cream Base

Makes about 3 cups

1 ½ cups heavy cream

1 ½ cups whole milk

2/3 cup white sugar (you may want less if anything any sweet flavorings)

Pinch kosher salt or fine sea salt

6 large egg yolks

1 - 2 tsp vanilla extract, optional

1. Combine the heavy cream, milk, sugar, and a pinch of salt in a medium pot. Place over medium heat and cook, whisking occasionally, until sugar is dissolved and mixture is just simmering around the edges of the pot, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat.

2. In a medium mixing bowl, whisk the egg yolks well. While whisking constantly and rapidly, begin to very slowly pour ½ of the hot milk mixture into yolks (the faster you whisk, the more you can control the temperature and prevent curdling the yolks). Return the hot milk – yolk mixture to the pot with the remaining hot milk mixture.

3. Place over medium-low heat, cooking gently and stirring constantly with a rubber spatula (be sure to scrape the bottom and get in the corners of the pan). Cook until thick enough to coat the back of a spoon or until mixture reaches 170-175 degrees F. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla if using; whisk until thoroughly combined.

3. Strain custard through a fine mesh sieve. For a super smooth texture, blend using a stand or immersion blender. Transfer ice cream base to a mixing bowl and place over another mixing bowl of ice water (this will help cool the custard more quickly). Whisk the custard until cooled to room temperature. Lay a layer of plastic wrap directly over the surface of the custard (to prevent a skin from forming), then wrap the whole bowl and refrigerate 8 hours or overnight.

4. Transfer mixture to an ice cream maker and churn according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Once mixture reaches the desired consistency, add mix-ins to the ice cream maker and churn for 1 minute or until mixed thoroughly. Serve from the machine as soft serve, or transfer to an airtight container and freeze for at least 2 hours.

To customize:

Herbs, spices, and citrus zest to ice cream: add ingredients to the cream before anything else is added; heat cream to a scald and remove from heat; let steep for 20 – 30 minutes. Continue with remaining steps. For extra flavors, let fully made custard steep for an additional 20 – 30 minutes before straining (step 3).

Fruit: Add up to ½ of pureed fruit in after straining. Please not that if fruit is very sweet, you may want to decrease sugar in base.

Nut butter: Stir up to 1 cup smooth nut butter after mixture is strained, but is still hot; this works for Nutella, too! Please note that you may want to use 1 cup cream and 2 cups milk instead of 1 ½ cups of each: the nut butter adds additional fat, so you may want to use more milk instead of cream in order to prevent to ice cream from feeling too rich or heavy.

Mix Ins & Swirls: These ingredients should be added for the last minute of churning, or can be folded in by hand after churning but before freezing. For this recipe, which yields about 3 cups of ice cream, add 2 – 3 oz of mix ins, or up to ¾ cup of a swirl ingredient. For mix ins, you can use nuts, chocolate chips or chunks, candy or cookie pieces, sprinkles, etc. For swirls, you can use jam, caramel, and fudge.