How to Make Better Vanilla Ice Cream

The first decision is the base. A custard base — cream, milk, sugar, yolks — carries vanilla better than a simple sweetened cream, because the fat and protein give the aroma somewhere to live. If you use a bean, keep the pod in the base while it chills overnight. That extra steep does the quiet work.

The second is restraint on the heat. A custard should be cooked to about 84°C — hot enough to set the texture, not so hot that the milk sugars scorch. Burnt milk notes sit badly next to vanilla's warm register. This is also why vanilla goes into the milk, not the yolks: it steeps, it doesn't cook.

The third is time. Chilled, rested bases produce smoother churn and deeper flavour. If you can, make the base the day before. Vanilla ice cream is the rare dessert where waiting is a technique.

Quantity: with a good bean, two pods against 800ml of base is the classic. With powder, start at two level teaspoons and taste the cold base before churning — cold makes everything read lighter.

Serve it at just above the temperature you frozen it at, in a warmed bowl. The first scoop should come away whole.