Home made vanilla ice cream

I have a confession to make. I love making ice cream! You guys might remember me mentioning that I bought an ice cream maker. Well. I can guarantee you it's been put to use! 3 batches in a week and a half. Not bad huh?

I've always been an ice cream lover, which is dangerous enough. But home made product is so much better that I'm gonna start running daily again! The texture, the brightness of the flavors and the chance to make it to my own taste can't be beaten by any commercial ice cream.

And the best part is that I love the making. It's such a calming process. Slow, but steady. The flavors coming together. So far I've made vanilla and mint, which was also used for a chocolate, mint ice cream cake. The next batch will probably be pistachio. I honestly see no end to this. I want to try to make every flavor, with every topping, swirl, fruit and nut I can imagine.

Do you guys make ice cream at home? if so, what's your favorite flavor? I'm considering making a list of 'to do flavors'. I'd love your ideas!

Vanilla Ice cream
Adapted from 'The joy of cooking'

1 1/2 cups of milk
2 cups heavy whipping cream
3 egg yolks
1 cup of sugar (or more if you'd like)
1 vanilla bean or 2 teaspoons high quality vanilla extract
Mini chocolate chips (optional)

If using a vanilla bean, scrape the seeds into the milk, if not, just heat up the milk and the sugar in a pot, making sure it doesn't boil. In a bowl, whip the eggs. Once the milk mixture is hot, add the milk to the eggs. To avoid curdling them, add a bit of milk while mixing with a whisk, so you temper the eggs, then add the rest of the hot milk. Bring the mix back to the pot and cook at 175 F with constant stirring. You want to make sure your mixture cooks at, at least, 160 F for 5 min so your eggs aren't raw anymore (this is the safe egg cooking temperature according to McGee). Joy of cooking suggests cooking it at 175 F and that's what I did.  Continue cooking the mixture until the custard coats the back of a spoon. Get of the heat and add the heavy cream. If you are using vanilla extract, this is the time to add it. Let the mixture cool and freeze according to your ice cream maker instructions.