• I make ice cream two ways depending on who I'm cooking for: thickened with eggs, or cornstarch. The cornstarch method is described in the recipe notes and is much easier than using eggs if you don't make a lot of ice cream.

Recipe

• If you crack your own black walnuts, put them in a bowl of cool water to remove any small pieces of shell. Remove the walnuts and dry.
• Whisk the cream, eggs, vanilla extract and salt.
• In a small 1 quart sauce pan over high heat, bring the maple syrup to a simmer.
• Bring the maple to a rolling boil and cook for 4-5 minutes, or until the bubbles try to creep up the sides of the pan. Add the corn syrup and cook on high for two minutes more.
• Allow the pan to cool for a few minutes or chill it briefly over a bowl of ice to not cook the eggs. The syrup will become very firm, you're just removing water form the maple here which helps ensure a smooth, creamy ice cream.
• Add the walnuts and cream mixture to the pan and begin cooking on medium-low heat, stirring regularly. Eventually the maple will melt.
• Cook it gently on low heat, stirring regularly with a wooden spoon until just thickened. this should take about 20 minutes.
• I usually plan to prep some vegetables or clean the kitchen while this is cooking as you want to stir it regularly. After the mixture's on the stove resist using a whisk as incorporating air can prevent it from thickening properly.
• When the mixture's thick enough to coat the back of a spoon, turn the heat off.
• Pour the ice cream base into a metal bowl, stirring to dissolve any lumps and scraping every bit of ice cream base into the bowl with a spatula.
• Cover with cling film and cool, then chill overnight.
• Process the ice cream base according to the manufacturers directions. It should take about 30 minutes to churn, and should look like soft serve ice cream when it’s done.
• Transfer the ice cream to a container with a tight fitting lid and freeze. It will take about 12 hours to set as salt, cream and corn syrup resist freezing.