There are no pictures of failure.
I hate custards. Wait, no, that's a lie. I love to EAT custards, I hate to make them, because apparently, I fail at them on a regular basis. see: Pots de Creme. The problem with this, however, is that lots and lots of ice cream bases are custards. (especially the ones in this book) So I am going to have to learn, come hell or high water.
I am fairly certain that this is user error, as opposed to cookbook error.
The epic fail began when I was cooking the brown sugar in a saucepan until it "was a chestnut color" so I was watching, and stirring, and approximating, and finally I figured it was okay (the sugar was bubbling up pretty crazily), and set it to rest for 15 minutes. I think that one of the things that may have helped me here is a temperature reading- I am pretty familiar with making caramel sauce, and am well acquainted with my candy thermometer, and I think knowing what temp I was aiming for would have been helpful. When the resting time was over, the sugar was melted, but still a little gritty in the pan, so I'm not sure if i undercooked it or not. (this would not matter, later)
While it was resting, I whisked the eggs, and set the milk in a saucepan to scald. I tempered the eggs, and poured the egg/ milk mixture back into the milk, turned the heat down,and then began to whisk. I was looking for a spoon, so i could test the thickness of the custard, when I lifted the whisk out of the milk and egg mixture, and noticed that there were tiny pieces of scrambled egg attached to it. My heart sank, and I killed the heat on the stove, and thought, maybe, if the eggs hadn't scrambled toooo much, I could take my sieve, and pour the milk/egg mixture through it, and have a salvaged ice cream base. Which I guess was good in theory, but in practice, I had scrambled much more of the egg than I realized, and half of the mixture stayed in the sieve. Cursing profusely, I trashed the entire thing.
I know I made a rule about not repeating recipes that I've made, but i feel like i need to give this one a second chance. Maybe next time with a double boiler.
