Easy Oreo Ice Cream

Okay you guys, let me first say how excited I've been to share this recipe with you!!!  The original recipe is from Paula Deen, but I felt I needed to modify it because her recipe has raw eggs yolks in it.  No offense to the Queen of all things rich and indulgent but because I knew I'd be serving this ice cream to my 2 and 4 year old, I wanted those eggs yolks nice and cooked!  The results were sheer, unadulterated PERFECTION!  Smooth, creamy, sweet perfection!  It turned out so amazing in fact, that I've started experimenting with other flavors!  Reese's Peanut Butter Cup, Nutty Coconut and I'm going to do Mint Chocolate Chip next!  We love ice cream at our house and because this is just so easy to whip together, I've been inspired to make all of my ice cream from scratch!  This makes me feel great because we will now be avoiding all of the chemicals, additives and hormones in store bought ice cream!  I'm even going to head to expedx to see what I can find in way of cool ice cream containers!  Aaaand...NO ICE CREAM MACHINE REQUIRED!!!!  AMAZING!

Just 6 simple ingredients:

1 cup 2% or whole milk(I like Horizon organic)

3 large or extra large egg yolks

1 14 oz can sweetened condensed milk

2 cups heavy whipping cream

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups rough chopped Oreo cookies(Paul Newman's chocolate sandwich cookies would be awesome too:)

In a small sauce pan, over medium heat, bring the milk to a scald(not quite boiling).  While the milk is heating, in a medium bowl, whisk the 3 egg yolks and condensed milk together.  Once the milk is scalding, turn the heat off and pour it very slowly into the egg mixture, whisking constantly!  This process is tempering your egg yolks so they don't start to scramble;).  Once the hot milk and egg mixture have been combined thoroughly, pour it back into the saucepan and turn your heat to medium-low.  Whisking constantly and making sure you are keeping your whisk moving on the bottom of the pan so the mixture doesn't scramble.  Cook the mixture until it thickens a bit and can coat the back of a spoon.  Be patient, it may take about 7-10 minutes!  And don't worry if while your whisking, the mixture becomes foamy on top.  This is just fine!  Once thickened, pour the cooked custard(egg yolk/milk mixture) into a clean and dry container with a lid.  Cover it with the lid and put it in the fridge to cool for 1-2 hours.  Once the custard has cooled, whip your heavy cream to soft peaks.  Add the vanilla and continue to whip until stiff peaks form.  Pour your cooled custard into the whipped cream and mix thoroughly.  Mix in your rough chopped Oreos.  The mixture should be thick enough that the Oreo chunks stay suspended.  Now pour your "almost" finished ice cream into a freezer friendly container with a lid.  Cover and put in the freezer for 6 hours.  When you bring it out to serve, you will not believe how amazing it sets up and the creamy smooth consistency it will have!

Note:  Be sure to place plastic wrap on top of ice cream once it has frozen and then put the lid back on.  This will help to keep it fresher longer and help to avoid ice crystals.

The smiles alone, make this ice cream worth the wait!:)  And I promise you, it really is soooo simple!  And if you are at all worried about your custard mixture having a few little "scrambles" in it, before you add it to the whipped cream, just pour it into a strainer over the top of the whipped cream and that will catch anything unwanted.;)  Be sure to check back because I'll be sharing more flavors in the coming weeks!
Questions???  Let's chat in the comments!


Original recipe from Paula Deen, modified recipe from Kara, images by Kara