Pistachio Ice Cream

Note: This recipe requires an ice cream maker.

We purchased our first Krupps ice cream machine when I was in high school & for the first year or so it got a lot of use. My mom made ice cream all the time, in various flavors. After the novelty wore off, the ice cream maker was forgotten (like many specialized appliances), until I took a new interest in it and began making frozen yogurt with fresh fruit. The ice cream machine joined me at my apartment during college and I used it to make frozen yogurt for my friends.

After I returned home, my mom took up her old habit. Unfortunately, the machine was on it's last leg, and eventually the small motor grew too weak to turn the paddle. Shortly after trashing the ice cream maker, I surprised my mom with a new one for Christmas, this one made by Cuisinart. Clearly a lot of improvement has been made in ice cream machinery during the years we owned ours, because the Cuisinart one is vastly superior to the old Krupps (not saying anything about the respective companies).

Here is a recipe for Pistachio ice cream from the Cuisinart Recipe Booklet that came with our machine. When I made it I cut the recipe in half.

Ingredients:
2 1/2 c milk (whole is best)
1 whole vanilla bean, halved & seeds scraped (I just used 1 t vanilla)
2/3 c sugar, divided
2 1/4 c roasted, unsalted pistachios; shelled
2 c heavy cream
pinch salt
6 large egg yolks
1/4 t almond extract

Makes 5 cups, 10 1/2 c servings.

Shell the pistachios & measure out 1 1/2 c. Take the remaining nuts and finely chop. In a medium saucepan over M/L heat combine milk, vanilla bean if using, half the sugar, and 1 1/2 c pistachios. Bring the mixture to a boil & remove from heat. Let steep for 1-2 hrs.

After steeping, add the cream & salt & gradually heat to just a boil over M/L. While this is heating beat together the egg yolks & sugar until it's pale & thick. Once the milk mixture is at a slight boil ladle 1/3 of it into your egg mixture & whisk together. Then ladle 1/3 more into the eggs and whisk again. Return everything to the saucepan and heat gradually until it thickens slightly and coats the back of a wooden spoon, stirring constantly. This should only take a few minutes--don't boil or the yolks will overcook.

Stir in the almond & vanilla extract (if using) and pour the mixture through a fine mesh strainer to remove the nuts & vanilla pod. Let cool to room temperature then refrigerate 1-2 hours min, or overnight.

When you are ready to make the ice cream, pour it into the maker & when almost thickened (~20 mins) pour in the chopped up pistachio nuts. The results are worth all the extra work & waiting overnight (as I did) for the flavors to set. The only changes I made were using vanilla extract (as noted), and we had salted pistachios, so I omitted the salt. There were no noticeable flavor oddities & I will most definitely be making this again.