Wood Fire Food

About twice a year the urge hits me to crank a handle on a leaky wooden bucket for an hour while pouring six pounds of salt on a pile of ice and praying The Goods won't be contaminated with saltwater. Oh, and with this strange desire comes the very natural craving for homemade ice cream. Continuing with my Smitten Kitchen obsession I found this recipe on Deb's site and followed it to the 't'. Just when you thought homemade ice cream was a healthy alternative to store-bought a recipe like this would come along and ruin your dreams. Wait, you never thought ice cream was low-fat in any fashion? I didn't either, and after seeing this my suspicions were only solidified (frozen? heh...)

via Smitten Kitchen

2 cups heavy cream

2 cups buttermilk

12 egg yolks

1.25 cups sugar

1 t vanilla extract

a little salt

I know what you're thinking, either "this sounds like a perfect, tart, custardy mix" or, if you don't like buttermilk, you may be thinking "disgusting." I'm here to tell you it's good. In fact it's very good. It IS heavy on the buttermilk (which, interestingly enough is actually lower in fat yet higher in calcium, potassium, and vitamins than whole milk- you can read all about it here) so next time, and there will most definitely be a next time, I may substitute little regular milk for about have of the buttermilk. As is this is undoubtedly the creamiest, richest homemade ice cream I've ever eaten. Good.