Heath Bar Crunch Ice Cream (Ben and Jerry's)

This is my spirit ice cream - immensely simple, and is one of the most rewarding ice cream I made. The best part about Melbourne winter is that I get to lounge around at home churning batches and batches of ice cream. Because everything is already cold right off the bat, each batch is done much faster, and while being photographed, they don't melt! 

Most ice cream recipes start with heating milk, cream and eggs over the stove, which lend a dense, solid texture to the final product. Ben and Jerry's recipes whip the raw eggs separately before combining it with dairy products without heat. The extra whipping adds a lot more air ('overrun') to the final mixture, imparting a lighter, softer ice cream. This gives a soft-serve consistency straight out of my trusty ice cream maker, and remains scoop-able even after a night in the freezer.  

At its core, this is their basic French Vanilla Ice Cream with coarsely chopped Heath Bars mixed in, but what a flavour! I didn't think a vanilla ice cream made only with vanilla extract would be so well-received... surely the star would be the embedded toffee? But the smoothness and softness of the ice cream won my housemates over, who made me promise that even when I run out of Heath bars, I'll still be churning up this French Vanilla Ice Cream.  

Heath Bar Crunch Ice Cream Recipe

The original recipe calls for just vanilla extract, and it'll be interesting to see if swapping some of the vanilla extract out for vanilla beans would improve the vanilla profile. If Heath Bars are not available in your area, any toffee coated with chocolate (such as Almond Roca) is a viable alternative. 

Recipe adapted from Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream and Dessert Book
Makes one generous litre

Ingredients
125g Heath Bars
2 large eggs
150g (3/4 cup) granulated sugar
470g (2 cups) heavy cream
245g (1 cup) milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Steps
1) Chop the Heath Bars coarsely, about 1/2 - 1 inch. Place the chunks in the freezer and cover. The colder the ingredients, the smoother the ice cream texture will be. If you're planning to keep the ice cream in a tupperware container after churning, place the tupperware in the freezer as well. 

2) In a bowl, whisk the eggs until thickened and light-colored, about 1-2 minutes. Add in the sugar gradually while whisking, until the sugar is mixed in completely. Add cream, milk, vanilla extract and continue to whisk until combined. 

3) Transfer to an ice cream machine and follow the instructions. When the ice cream mixture stiffens (about 2 minutes before done - see photo for texture), add in the Heath Bars and let the machine churn until the candy is mixed in. The ice cream would have the consistency of soft-serve when out of the ice cream machine, and can be transferred into a tupperware and be kept in the freezer. 

Note:
Because this recipe uses raw eggs, the ice cream should be kept for no more than a week - which is not a problem for me, now that I think about it.