Peppermint Schnapps Ice Cream - cooking recipe

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups whole milk
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
1/2 vanilla bean
1/2 cup granulated sugar
4 egg yolks
1 teaspoon peppermint extract
2 tablespoons peppermint schnapps
1/4 cup crushed soft peppermint candy (can substitute candy canes)

Preparation

Fill a medium saucepan with water.
Bring the water to a gentle simmer.
Place a glass bowl on top of the saucepan.
Add the milk and cream to the bowl.
Cut the vanilla bean in half, and then scrape the seeds into the milk and cream mixture.
Add the pieces of vanilla bean.
Slowly bring the milk mixture to a simmer, stirring occasionally, for about 20 minutes.
In a separate bowl add the granulated sugar and egg yolks.
Whisk the eggs and sugar together until the mixture is smooth and pale yellow in color.
Slowly whisk some of the hot milk mixture into the egg yolks.
Then whisk all of the egg yolk mixture back into the bowl of milk.
Stirring constantly, cook the milk mixture until it thickens and coats the back of a wooden spoon, about 15 more minutes.
Pour the milk mixture through a strainer into a bowl.
Let the custard cool to room temperature, then cover and refrigerate overnight.
The next day, remove the custard from the refrigerator.
Pour the chilled custard into an ice cream maker and process.
Just before the ice cream is at the desired consistency, pour in the peppermint extract, peppermint schnapps and crushed peppermint candies.
Continue to process the ice cream for another 5-10 minutes.
Note: the ice-cream will be \"soft-serve\" at this stage.
You can spoon the ice cream into a bowl, cover it and place it in the freezer until ready to serve.
Let the ice cream thaw on the counter about 5 minutes before serving.