Cinnamon Ice Cream

After seeing so many posts about homemade ice cream on Lauren's blog, I decided to take the plunge and bought an attachment for my stand mixer.

My son was enticed by the lure of cinnamon waffles yesterday morning, so I figured cinnamon ice cream was a good first choice.  I found a lot of recipes for cinnamon ice cream, but was a little put off by a ton of steps plus separating eggs (I have no problem separating them, but whatever isn't used in the recipe usually goes to waste, no matter how committed I am to the idea of saving them and using them later).  I found this one on allrecipes, and it seemed easy enough, used ground cinnamon, and also called for whole eggs.

I made it:

and, though the manual suggested blending for 20-30 minutes, I let it go for about an hour.  It still wasn't a thick consistency like I'd have expected from hard ice cream... it was more like soft serve, and BAJ kept saying it seemed like whipped cream.  It was tasty, though way too sweet and way too cinnamon-y for my liking.  I think next I need to try one of the recipes that came with the maker, and hopefully the results will be better.

Update:  After putting it in the freezer for awhile, this ice cream really mellowed.  It wasn't too cinnamon-y, and the sweetness cooled its jets too.  We both enjoyed our ice cream sundaes with this a LOT.  I've been dreaming of putting this into coffee (though, alas, only have flavored coffee, and one that won't go well with cinnamon!).

Ingredients

• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 1/2 cups half-and-half cream
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Directions

1. In a saucepan over medium-low heat, stir together the sugar and half-and-half. When the mixture begins to simmer, remove from heat, and whisk half of the mixture into the eggs. Whisk quickly so that the eggs do not scramble. Pour the egg mixture back into the saucepan, and stir in the heavy cream. Continue cooking over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture is thick enough to coat the back of a metal spoon. Remove from heat, and whisk in vanilla and cinnamon. Set aside to cool.
2. Pour cooled mixture into an ice cream maker, and freeze according to the manufacturer's instructions.