Homemade Frozen Custard

Just like Ritters! Well, probably not *just* like but close enough for me. So, here's the scoop, so to speak. I don't have a huge sweet tooth but the other evening, I wanted something sweet. I don't, as a rule, eat ice cream, but I do like frozen custard. But can you make frozen custard at home? And more importantly without an ice cream maker? A little help from my old pal, Google, and I was on my way. The results? Wow! Close enough to make me long for summer! So, here you go, as easy as, well frozen custard!

Frozen Vanilla Custard (base recipe from Cooks.com)

2 cups milk (I used soy milk and it came out fine. Next time I'll use chocolate soy milk!)
3 eggs, beaten
3/4 cup sugar
1/8 tsp salt
1 cup cream, whipped
1 tbsp vanilla

1. Heat milk in the top of a double boiler over boiler water. (Custard, schmustard, I put it in a bowl and heated it for 3 minutes in the microwave.)

2. In a pan (over a double boiler or in a heavy bottomed sauce pot), with *no* heat, mix together eggs, sugar, and salt. Slowly turn on the heat and stir until sugar is dissolved, then pour in the hot milk a bit at a time, stirring constantly. (The trick is to keep the eggs from cooking.)

3. Turn the heat to medium and cook the mixture stirring constantly until it thickens. (This takes about 15 minutes for me.) You can tell the custard is done more by taste than by appearance -- the eggs will taste "cooked."

4. Remove the mixture from the heat and cool. (I find it helps to keep stirring until it cools down a bit. Otherwise, I find egg chunks in my custard.) While it's cooling, whip the cream.

5. When the mixture is cool, fold in the whipped cream and vanilla. Pour the custard into trays (I use plastic containers), and freeze until firm. Serves 6 (or fewer if I'm there.)

The texture when frozen is ice creamy with that great frozen custard mouth feel. Delicious! And just in time for spring!