Creamsicle Ice Cream

I have been on an ice cream making kick lately. Not necessarily by choice, but rather , on request. Over the course of the last month, I have made 9 quarts of ice cream. Luckily, 6 of them were repeats: I made vanilla bean, coffee oreo, and salted caramel for one friend's birthday party, salted caramel, key lime pie, and coffee oreo for Adam's birthday, and salted caramel, coffee oreo, and mint chocolate chip for another friends' birthday party.

...the obvious question here is why am I not posting recipes about coffee oreo or salted caramel ice cream here? Well, you see, I'm a little tired of making those at the moment and I didn't take pictures the first, second, or third time I made them. All in due time.

Today, however, I came home from work and was craving ice cream. For the first time in awhile, the temperatures hit 80 or above in Boston, and it is glorious out. Why I'm not hearing an ice cream truck driving around right now is mind-boggling-those guys would make a killing today. I thought about making key lime pie ice cream again, but was looking at a recipe book for old-school favorites, and came across...strawberry shortcake ice cream bars. There are a lot of steps to that particular recipe, but it looked so appealing, and reminded me of eating them as a kid.  In some roundabout way, that made me think of creamsicles. Those strawberry shortcake bars, like the caramel and coffee oreo ice creams, will be put on the short list for another hot day.

Ice cream, as a general rule, is not really all that difficult. I actually said that to a friend of mine this week, and she responded "you say that about every recipe!" True, I might say that, but ice cream really can be simple if you pick the right recipes. I don't use a custard base (which will make me temper eggs) because I always scramble the egg into the hot milk mixture I have. I use Philadelphia-style recipes instead, which have cream and milk as the base. I also have an ice cream maker, which I found on Amazon for about $30, refurbished, a few years ago. That little machine has gotten quite the workout (especially over the last few weeks) and has been worth every penny.

Creamsicle ice cream is the easy way out for a creamsicle fanatic. It's got all the taste without the extra work to have a vanilla ice cream center and an orange outside. It makes me think of warm summer days and makes me hungry for more ice cream. Best of all, it's fruity, so it gives me a false illusion that I am eating something healthy.

Creamsicle Ice Cream (recipe obtained from thehappygirlexperiment.com)

1 c. whole milk

2 c.  heavy cream

3/4 c. sugar

1 vanilla bean, or 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

zest from one orange

1/2 teaspoon orange extract

Make sure that the ice cream bowl is completely frozen; often they need about 5-6 hours to completely freeze in the freezer. I generally keep mine in there all the time so it is ready when I need it.

Combine the milk, heavy cream, and sugar in a bowl and whisk vigorously until completely blended, about one to two minutes. Add in the scraped contents of one vanilla bean or the vanilla extract, the orange zest and orange extract, and whisk to combine. Place in fridge to chill for one to two hours.

When ready to churn, place mixture in the frozen ice cream bowl and churn according to manufacturer instructions. Generally ice cream takes between 25-30 minutes to gel completely together. Place in freezer safe container and let ripen for a few hours, or just eat directly from the bowl.