This is vanilla ice cream, but I just wanted to remind you that all it is is frozen custard, paired at its best with a bowl of warm, oven-poached rhubarb (following the rhubarb bit of the fool recipe).
500ml full-fat milk
1 vanilla pod
6 egg yolks
125g caster sugar
150ml double cream
Pour the milk into a saucepan. Cut the vanilla pod all down its length and, using the tip of the knife, scrape out the seeds into the milk in the pan. Now add the rest of the pod and bring almost to the boil. Turn off the heat, cover the pan and leave to steep for 20 minutes.
Whisk the yolks and sugar together, remove the pod from the milk and pour the milk into the eggy mixture, whisking as you go. Wash out the milk pan and pour the custard mixture back into the cleaned pan and heat, stirring, for 10 minutes or so until the mixture’s thickened, following all the usual strictures. Let cool, stirring every now and again, then chill in the fridge. Just before freezing, whip the cream until thick, but not stiff, and fold it into the custard. Freeze as usual.
Serves 6–8.