Vanilla Ice Cream

Always listed as the most popular ice cream flavor, vanilla can be as plain as … vanilla … and a useful, guileless base for sauces and other happy edible folderol. On the other hand, it can be the most interesting flavor of all. Aside from the quality of cream and its level of butterfat, the determining factor is the vanilla itself. Artificial vanillin tastes unmistakably artificial. The inclusion of little flecks from the vanilla bean is more more about optics than taste, but ice cream made with Madagascar bourbon vanilla beans does deliver buttery richness that makes it dessert royalty. French vanilla ice cream, which has a golden hue, is made with eggs and therefore silkier and richer than regular vanilla.