Quick Basic Vanilla

This "Quick Basic Vanilla" recipe can be used as a "Model" recipe for a lot of your own Ice Cream "Experiments"

1. Place half and half and heavy whipping cream in freezer can.
2. Add sugar and stir until disolved
3. Add vanilla extract
4. Add whole milk until the level reaches the fill line (*)
5. Add paddle, top with lid and place in mixer
6. Alternate ice and rock salt until area around can is filled to the top
7. Plug in mixer
8. Check every 15 minutes to add more ice and salt as the ice melts (**)

NOTES/HINTS:

• (*) I sometimes like to fill to an inch below the fill line so that the mixer doesn't have to work quite as hard and hopefully stop when the ice cream is a bit thicker... this practice can save on the manufacturer's recommended "pack time". This extra space sometimes also causes the cream in the ice cream to whip adding a bit more air, helping the ice cream stay soft when left-overs are frozen.
• (**) Watch for the "floating ice" syndrome... you'll think you have enough ice in the mixer, but the ice is just floating on warm water :(. If this happens, either drain enough water off so that the ice packs all the way to the bottom or push new ice down forcing water to leave by the drain hole.
• If you have done everything right and the mixer hasn't stopped after an hour, look though the clear top of the can-- if the ice cream has frothed all the way to the top, you're probably done and can stop and mixer and test your batch. If you can still see thick ice cream flowing through the paddle, you need to get colder ice :). Seriously, try freshening the ice, adding a little more salt, draining a bit of melt and waiting another 15 minutes.
• Ice Cream is pretty forgiving... as long as you keep to a few elementary proportions, your ice cream will turn out just fine. This "basic" recipe is close to my "ideal" when it comes to proportions :)
• Too much cream and you risk "freezing failure"-- not enough 'ice' in the 'ice cream' so you get a thick, cold frothy milk. Too much cream can also taint the ice cream with a chalky taste.
• Too little cream and you still get "ice cream", but it will freeze so hard that you may get a "brick" that just spins with your paddle. Also, when leftovers are refrigerated, the "ice cream" will become an "ice cube".
• Sugar is really just to taste, with the exception that too much sugar makes your ice cream into a cold syrup. Frozen leftovers do stay softer tho when there is a bit too much sugar.
• I love putting fruit in ice cream, but you'll find out fast that fruit is mostly water and frezes into tiny rock-hard chunks that are almost tasteless.
• Don't worry too much about whether you have a 4 quart or a 5 quart freezer. You can add more sugar or more cream to convert this recipe into a 5 quart recipe. In my experience, the ice cream turns out fine using this recipe for a 5 quart freezer.
• I usually buy the raw "sun salt" or similar product for water softeners which is really just rock salt in a 20 lb bag. Don't buy pellets.
• To save on ice costs, I have been known to freeze gallon milk bottles filled with water in my chest freezer the day before. Use any nearby gorilla to crush the ice while still in the milk bottle, break open into an ice chest and proceed with the process as tho you had bought the ice.
• On humid summer days I wrap the freezer in an old towel as an extra insulator.