Sous Vide Ice Cream

This sous vide vanilla ice cream is blow your mind delicious, and beyond easy. This recipe skips all the normal French custard based ice cream drudgery like tempering eggs and sieving the ice cream base. A quick whisk, pour, sous vide, chill, freeze is all you need to have incredible ice cream.

Recipe adapted from David Lebovitz's A Perfect Scoop.

4.75 from 4 votes

Prep Time 25

Cook Time 1

Chill Time 8

Total Time 9 25

Ingredients

1 cup whole 3% milk fat milk
¾ cup granulated sugar
5 large egg yolks
pinch of fine salt
2 cups heavy cream 33-36% milk fat
½ tablespoon vanilla extract
1 ½ tablespoon whiskey or rum 80 proof (40%) (optional)

Instructions

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the 1 cup whole and ¾ cup granulated sugar until completely combined.
Add 5 large egg yolks, pinch of fine salt, 2 cups heavy cream, ½ tablespoon vanilla extract, and 1 ½ tablespoon whiskey or rum, whisking well after each addition until combined.
Pour the ice cream base into two 500 ml (pint) mason jars. Fill only until the base of the threads.
Close the mason jars and seal the lids finger-tight. Set the jars aside.
Fillthe sous vide water bath with hot tap water, then slowly lower the jars into the water bath.
Set the sous vide to 175f and allow it to preheat with the jars in the water bath.
Cook the ice cream base at 175f for 1 hour.
Once cooked, use a jar lifter to carefully lift the jars out of the water bath. Place them on a wire mesh rack or hot pot holder for 30-60 minutes, until slightly warmer than room temperature.
At this point, you can speed up the cooling process, or you can pop the jars in the fridge until later (24-72 hours). If you want to make ice cream immediately, place the jars in a sink and slowly fill the sink with tepid water. Once the jars are in the water for a few minutes, add a few handfuls of ice to the water bath. Monitor the ice bath, adding ice as required until the jars are well chilled. If you want to make ice cream at another time, place the room temperature jars into the fridge and chill the mixture until ready to use. Use your base within 3 days.
When ready to make ice cream, operate the ice cream maker based on your ice cream manufacturer's directions.
Serve the soft, freshly made ice cream immediately, or transfer to an airtight freezer container and serve once hardened.

Notes

no ice cream maker?

There are two ways that I would recommend finishing this recipe:

Transfer the chilled custard to a freezer ziplock bag. Freeze the ice cream flat until completely solid. Then break it into small chunks and process it in your food processor until completely smooth.
Pour the chilled custard into a large mixing bowl. Place the bowl in your freezer, and every 30 minutes, remove the ice cream and stir vigorously until the ice cream is completely frozen.

Batch:

This sous vide ice cream recipe makes about 1 liter of ice cream base. Once churned, you'll end up with about 1 1/2 liters of ice cream.

Storage:

To store your ice cream, transfer the churned ice cream to an airtight freezer container and store in the freezer for up to 3 weeks. It's best eaten sooner than later, in my opinion.

variations + substitutions

Vanilla bean ice cream: slice a fresh, plump vanilla bean down the center lengthwise. Scrape the seeds out, and add them to the ice cream mixture. Add half of the vanilla bean to each jar. Remove the bean before churning ice cream. Rinse the bean well, and add it to your jar of homemade vanilla extract!
Chocolate ice cream: There are a few more steps involved in chocolate ice cream, so I've split it into its own recipe page. Find it here: Sous Vide Chocolate Ice Cream.