Philadelphia-style (no egg) vanilla ice cream

One of the reasons I wanted to buy an ice cream machine was so I could make American, or what's called "Philadelphia-style", ice cream. 

Unlike French custard-base ice cream, Philadelpha-style ice cream has no eggs in it.  Because of that, you can quickly and easily whip up the ice cream base(no custard to cook) but I think it's harder to get a smooth, creamy result doing it by hand for the same reason.  But thanks to my new ice cream machine, I easily made my first batch of Philadelphia-style vanilla ice cream recently.

Without any egg yolks (leaving it white in color versus a distinct yellow hue in French vanilla ice cream), Philadelphia-style ice cream isn't quite as rich (which isn't such a bad thing in my book) and I think it also allows a more "clean", pure vanilla flavor to shine through.  Each style has its own merits.  Interestingly, I've never been a fan of "French vanilla" ice cream that you buy at the supermarket (I thought it was too rich) but I adored the homemade version.  Luckily, there's room for both kinds and I am a fan of diversity.

I had heard that homemade Philadelphia-style ice cream may be grainier than its French counterpart and more difficult to scoop as it hardens in the freezer.  I agree that the custard-base ice cream is smoother and creamier but my homemade Philly ice cream was definitely not hard and actually quite easy to scoop even after 2-3 days in the freezer (there was no more after that).  So I guess it boils down to this trade-off:  Philadelphia-style ice cream has an arguably stronger vanilla flavor but French vanilla is creamier, with more of a luscious mouth feel. 

If I had to pick a favorite...after making and tasting both versions made in the ice cream maker, I've decided (at least, for now) that Philadelphia edges out as my preference.

If you are a fan of true pure vanilla bean ice cream, I think it's best to enjoy a scoop or two of this all by itself.  The flavor is delicious but I have to admit I'm not much of a plain-vanilla type girl (when it comes to ice cream...although I wonder how "vanilla" became synomous with "plain" in the first place since the flavor is actually so complex and robust).  I'm a big fan of mix-in's, crunchy add-on's and chocolate thrown into the mix so I plan to play around with this vanilla base in the future.  Since I rarely eat vanilla ice cream all by itself, I made a few individual flourless chocolate cakes to go with it.  My favorite way to "deploy" vanilla ice cream is to have it with warm molten chocolate cake (I paired them up recently with a batch of French vanilla ice cream made in the machine.)