So a while ago, I won fabulous vanilla beans from Angela via Vanilla Food Company. This weekend, I finally made use to some of them!

And, if you couldn’t guess what I made by the title of this post, I made ICE CREAM!

Okay, I made it in my ice cream maker, but still. I put the ingredients together and whatnot, so in my mind, I made it.

I got the beans out of five vanilla pods by cutting them in half length-wise and then running the non-sharpened side of the blade to scrape out the beans. It made my fingers smell deliciously like vanilla!

Here’s a close-up of the beans:

Now, to really get the flavour out, apparently you heat them up on a stove in milk and whatnot, but I’m lazy and didn’t. Next time!

Then, I mixed up my milk and sugar until my sugar was all dissolved, then I added my heavy/whipping cream and the vanilla. Then I poured the mixture into my handy-dandy Cuisinart Ice Cream machine:

The machine is SO LOUD! Like, ridiculously loud. But – the end result? Delicious ice cream!

The vanilla beans really make it look so much more gourmet! I had a little taste already and it’s SO good! It’s now in the freezer hardening up. Can’t wait to have a bowl – and maybe I’ll share. No promises though!

Have you ever made home-made ice cream?