It’s hard to resist the sweet siren call of ice cream. Kids, adults, and foodies alike will love this unique recipe, which combines everyone’s favorite dessert with a little mad science.
Forget about an ice cream maker: we’re going to use dry ice, which has the power to turn your Baking Steel into a -38 degrees F ice block and the ideal ice cream canvas. Try doing that with your pizza stone or a baking sheet!
Once you make your rich custard base, transfer it to your Baking steel, which has been chilled with dry ice. Working with bench scrapers, you’ll “knead” the custard into some of the richest, creamiest ice cream you’ve ever had the pleasure of putting in your mouth.
Prepare an ice-water bath by filling your sink (or a large bowl) with ice and cold water. It should be large enough to allow your ice cream mixing bowl to rest inside it.
Beat the yolks, sugar, and salt by hand with a whisk until pale yellow and thick, about 5 minutes.
Meanwhile, scrape the vanilla seeds into a medium saucepan, and add the pod, milk, and cream. Bring the mixture to a hard simmer--that is to say, bubbles have formed but are not in rolling motion--then remove from heat.
Pour about half of the hot milk mixture into the yolk mixture, whisking constantly while pouring to discourage the eggs from scrambling.
Once thoroughly combined, pour the yolk-milk mixture back into the saucepan with the remaining milk mixture. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, until mixture is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon and hold a line drawn by your finger, about 4 to 6 minutes.
Strain the mixture through a fine sieve into a bowl to remove any bits of egg that may have formed. Place the bowl in the ice-water bath. Stir every few minutes until it is thoroughly chilled.
Being careful not to allow the dry ice to touch your skin, use oven mitts to pour the dry ice pellets into the top of a rimmed cookie sheet. Place the Baking Steel Griddle on top of the dry ice and wait 5 minutes. Your Griddle is going to get very cold very fast (we’re talking -25-50 degrees F), so do not touch it directly!
Pour your chilled creme anglaise (the ice cream base) on top of the chilled griddle and work quickly with a bench scraper to move the liquid around until it has chilled enough to set.
The mixture will freeze very quickly, so work confidently and quickly! This ice cream can be served immediately; store leftovers in the freezer in an airtight container.
