Root Beer Float Ice Cream

Did you ever, while looking for vanilla extract at the grocery store, see the Root Beer Concentrate and wonder what it's for?

Is it for making your own soda? Are you supposed to cook with it? If yes, what? And then I was at my favorite local ice cream shop and they had Root Beer Float ice cream as a special flavor last night and it is my new favorite thing. And so naturally, I had to figure out how to make it myself.

And then I was impatient. This is a custardless ice cream, cream, sugar, and extracts. No eggs, no cooking. Mix up the ingredients and pour in the ice cream maker. Easy peasy. Custard ice creams are usually creamier, smoother, than egg-less ice cream. Fresh out of the ice cream maker, of course it always feels creamy; this one, without the eggs, gets some ice crystal throughout it in the freezer after a day, which makes it feel even more like the foam on a real root beer float.

This ice cream tastes like summer. It tastes like the foam on a root beer float, or when you've mashed all your ice cream into your root beer. (Please tell me I'm not the only one who does that.) It tastes like something you eat on the way home from the beach. You can almost feel the salt drying on your skin eating it.

You know you want to try this.

Root Beer Float Ice Cream

yields 1 quart

2 cups heavy cream

2 cups milk*

3/4 c sugar

1 tablepsoon vanilla extract

1 tablespoon root beer concentrate

Pour all ingredients in a mixing bowl. Whisk. Taste and add more flavor if needed. Freeze according to your ice cream maker instructions.

* You can use one quart of half and half instead of the milk and heavy cream