No-Churn Vanilla Ice Cream

Ingredients

• 6 ounces heavy cream
• 3 large eggs
• 3 1/2 ounces sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon Diamond Crystal kosher salt; for table salt, use about half as much by volume or the same weight
• 3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

1. Fit your stand mixer with the whisk attachment and beat the cream until it can stand in stiff peaks; mixers vary, so watch it carefully as it thickens. Spoon it into a large non-reactive container, which will later become the ice cream container, then cover and chill it. Wash the mixer bowl and whisk and dry both well before using them again for the egg mixture.
2. Pour a few inches of water into a large pot or Dutch oven. Bring it to a boil, then turn down the heat so the water simmers and keeps producing steam. In the stand mixer bowl, combine the eggs, sugar, and salt with a flexible spatula. Crumple a strip of foil into a ring and set it in the pot as a little lift, then rest the bowl over the steam without letting it sit on the pot bottom. Cook the mixture, stirring and scraping the whole time, until a thermometer reads 160 degrees F (71 degrees C). This takes about 5 minutes. If it takes much longer than that, the heat is probably too low or there is not enough steam.
3. Move the bowl to the stand mixer, attach the whisk, and add the vanilla extract. Whip on high until the eggs turn foamy, expand to more than quadrupled in size, and become thick enough that batter falling from the whisk briefly piles up like soft serve ice cream. Depending on the strength of your mixer, this will take between 5 to 8 minutes.
4. Add the reserved whipped cream and fold with a light hand, blending it in as completely as you can without knocking out the air or overworking the base. Transfer the mixture to the chilled container, cover it, and freeze until it is solid enough to scoop, approximately 0 degrees F. The exact timing depends on the container’s size and material, but plan on 6 to 8 hours. Once it is cold, scoop it as you would ice cream and serve in chilled dishes.