Banana Pudding & Coconut Cream Ice Cream

It has been extremely hot here in Los Angeles lately. 100+ degrees hot. We are one of the few fortunate to have an air conditioning; however, this kind of heat requires more than just cool artificial air. It requires ice cream. It is National Ice Cream Month, after all.

One of my most favorite flavors to make (and to eat) is Coconut Cream. It's a nostalgic flavor for me, but it also tastes so, so, so good. When I make ice cream, it's usually my go-to flavor. This time, I also wanted to make something a little different. Something I have never made before, yet something that would go well with coconut. In comes Banana Pudding.

Nilla wafers, layered with banana slices and vanilla pudding... it's so tasty on it's own, but as an ice cream flavor? Why not? I started off the ice cream process the same way I always do. Vanilla beans, milk, and cream.

I slice the vanilla pods open, scoop out the vanilla beans, and the let the beans and the pods soak in the milk, as they begin to simmer.

It gets a little tricky after this. Sugar and eggs are mixed, then blended with the hot cream, in a very careful way. If this is done too quickly, you will end up with sweet, vanilla scrambled eggs - so be careful. I was so careful that I neglected to photograph this process. Either way, I placed my egg/cream custard mixture through a sieve, just to remove any scrambled egg bits that may have formed. I then let my mixture chill overnight, before placing it in the ice cream maker.
Since I had 2 different flavors, this was a 2-day process. Banana pudding was easy... just churn and add little scoops of the pudding right at the last few minutes of churning. For the coconut cream, I had prepared and chilled a mixture of coconut extract, heavy cream, and sweetened condensed milk ahead of time, mixed that with my vanilla bean base, and added coconut flakes at the last few minutes of churning.

It's hard to tell the 2 flavors apart, but we have banana pudding on top and coconut on the bottom. Both extremely rich and creamy. While coconut is usually my favorite, I must admit the banana pudding flavor blew me away. I bet some hot fudge topping would make it perfect! It might become my new go-to flavor.
Anyone else making ice cream this summer?