Having homemade frozen custard has been a Christmas tradition in my husband’s family for a very long time. This year, I had the privilege of learning how to make it. This blog post is mainly to help me remember the steps 🙂 Recipe can easily be doubled or tripled.
Ingredients:
1/2 cup of sugar
3 Tbls cornstarch
1/2 tsp salt
1 quart of whole milk, scalded
4 eggs
3 Tbls sugar for egg whites
Instructions:
Mix sugar, cornstarch, and salt in a pot. For triple recipe, we used 6 quart size. Scald the milk in the microwave, making sure you don’t overdo it. Slowly pour the hot milk into the pot with dry ingredients, gently mixing the whole time. Boil on low heat (power 3 on our stove top) while gently stirring. Do this until mixture “sticks” to/coats the metal spoon. (Run your finger across spoon. If mixture doesn’t fill in the track you just made, it’s ready)
Separate the eggs. Put the egg whites aside in an electric mixer. Beat the egg yolks until smooth/well blended. Spoon some of the milk/sugar mixture into the beaten egg yolks, before adding them to the pot (to warm them up more gently). Heat thoroughly while gently stirring the whole time, on low temperature, for about 5 minutes. Then cool the contents down in snow pile or ice bath.
Beat the egg whites until stiff like whipped cream, adding the sugar very gradually (about 1/6 at a time) while beating. This is to ensure the sugar fully dissolves in the process. The white mixture will at least double in size.
With the 2 mixtures roughly the same temperature (between room temp and slightly cool), start gradually pouring some of the yolk/milk mixture into the frothy eggs. Fold/blend gently with each pour. After about half the milk/yolk mix has been poured into the frothy whites, you can switch and pour the frothy white mix into the remaining milk/yolk mix. Fold/stir until well blended. Add vanilla to taste, about 1 tsp per recipe.
Pour the custard into a flat-bottomed plastic container with air-tight lid (at least 3 quart size). And now the fun begins. Place custard in freezer for an hour. Take out and stir. Place back into freezer for about 45 minute increments, then stir and check. Repeat this until until custard is slushy consistency. This might take more than 7 hours, so we recommend starting early enough in the day 🙂
When custard is slushy with no liquid left, it is important to bury it in a snow bank. This keeps it from becoming frozen and rock solid. It will remain in slushy/frozen custard form while stored in the snow.
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