Orange-vanilla ice cream: An easy homemade treat

I was recently in the market for a tub of vanilla ice cream but after 15 minutes in the grocery store’s frozen section (where I read practically EVERY label), I left empty handed. Why? Because I couldn’t recognize much past 'sugar' and 'cream.' So I decided it was time for homemade – the old school way (read: no fancy ice cream maker). And luckily Chatelaine’s orange-vanilla ice cream turned out to be both easy to make and just as tasty as store bought.

While vanilla is a good staple ice cream, I wanted something with a hit of flavour, which the orange juice and zest definitely supplied. Mini sous chef had her apron on and whisk at the ready the moment I said ‘ice cream’ and we worked through each step together. Which was easy, because there are only three of them. First you whisk the orange zest into the fresh squeezed orange and lime juices, and then whisk in the icing sugar. It’s suggested you use a stand mixer but since I don’t have one (yet!), we whisked by hand and finished up with an electric mixer.

With the mini busy on icing sugar clump patrol, I opened the vanilla bean. I’ve never used a real vanilla bean before, always opting for the super easy extract. But once I got the hang of scraping the seeds out of the pod (they are tiny and super sticky), I decided I’m not going back to extract. The flavour is just that much better. You add the vanilla pod seeds and cream into the sugar mixture, and then beat it until soft peaks form (took us about 3 minutes). We went for kid-friendly ice cream and left out the orange liqueur.

I scraped the whipped mixture into the loaf pan while the mini licked the beaters, and with a parchment cover on top, the whole thing went in the freezer for the night. We brought it out a few minutes before dessert to let it soften slightly, and as suggested, used a large serving spoon to scrape it into our bowls (versus an ice cream scoop). The texture is slightly different than store bought ice cream (not as creamy, and more whipped tasting), but that hasn’t hindered the mini’s (daily) ice cream requests. The zest added a nice boost of both flavour and texture, and next time I’m planning to try vanilla strawberry, or even chocolate chip mint - our personal favourite. I expect the ice cream aisle won't be seeing much of me in the future...

Try this recipe: Orange-vanilla ice cream