Nigel Slater's classic vanilla ice cream recipe

Serves 6

Ingredients:

• 600ml milk
• 1 fat vanilla pod
• 6 egg yolks
• 150g caster sugar

Method:

Pour 600ml milk into a saucepan. Slice a fat vanilla pod in half lengthways and scrape the sticky black vanilla seeds into the pan with the point of a knife. Drop the scraped pod in, too, then bring the mixture almost to the boil. Turn off the heat just before it boils. Leave for 30 minutes or so, for the vanilla to flavour the milk.

Beat 6 egg yolks and 150g caster sugar till light and fluffy. Fish out the vanilla pod but not the seeds from the milk, then pour it through a sieve into the egg yolks and sugar, stirring till you get a thin custard. Pour it into a clean saucepan.

Put the custard over a moderate heat and, stirring almost continuously with a wooden spoon, bring it slowly towards the boil. Once the custard is thick enough to thinly coat the back of a wooden spoon, remove it from the heat, pour it into a cold basin and leave it to cool. Once it is cool, refrigerate it for a good half-hour before pouring into an ice cream machine and churning until almost frozen.

The trick

The custard must not reach boiling point, but should start to thicken before it gets there. If you overheat the custard it will curdle (I guarantee), so make certain that the spoon gets right into the corners of the pan. Your most helpful utensil will be a sink of cold water. If there is even the remotest sign of curdling, quickly dunk the pan into a sink of cold water to cool the sauce down and whisk like you mean it.

The twist

Made with half milk and half cream, the result will taste more like the ices of your childhood. When you transfer the ice cream to a freezer box, swirl in a few spoonfuls of blackcurrant or raspberry purée for a contemporary version of old-fashioned raspberry ripple.