Bacon and Chocolate Chip

I've been slacking with posting recipes I have tried, but I assure you I haven't slacked on making many different recipes and creating my own.
Bacon ice cream. I had tried bacon ice cream last summer at Sweet Republic in Scottsdale, AZ. If you are in the area, I HIGHLY recommend stopping in and trying every single flavor, no matter how odd the combo sounds. My fav wound up being buttered sweet corn. I'll probably try my hand at this before summer is through.
So bacon. If you like a sweet/salty combo, you will probably be surprised to see you like this ice cream. I simply used David Lebovitz's recipe since his salted buttered caramel recipe hadn't failed me. I got family to try it, even someone who swore they wouldn't try it, and he wound up eating several spoonfuls. It isn't a "lets have a huge bowl and watch tv" type ice cream. It is a cleanse the pallate and have a delicious treat ice cream.
My youngest daughter had chosen her first option as chocolate chip ice cream, so I tried my hand at making up a vanilla base on my own. I figured I'd read enough recipes to know what should be in the ice cream, so I just guessed. Here is the recipe I came up with. The extra step of the vanilla sugar I think made the ice cream. I would say add extract to get the same flavor, but I'm not convinced it would be the same outcome.


Chocolate Chip Ice Cream
1 Cup Vanilla Sugar
1 Cup Cream
4 Egg Yolks
2 Cups Whole Milk
1 Vanilla Bean
1/4 cup mini chocolate chips

Vanilla Sugar-needs to be made at least 1 week in advance. I keep a constant stream of this stuff in my kitchen. I have about 10 vanilla beans in a cleaned pasta sauce jar. Any glass jar will work. Simply put vanilla beans in the jar and cover them with white granulated sugar. Over time, the vanilla flavor seeps into the sugar. For just 1 cup, 1 or 2 beans is probably sufficient.

Put 1 cup whole milk in searate bowl in an ice bath. To this milk, add cut open vanilla bean, scraping seeds into the cream. Allow to sit while preparing custard.
Put 1 cup cream and other 1 cup milk into saucepan. heat over medium heat. Add vanilla sugar and dissolve sugar. Bring to almost a boil. Slowly add some of the hot mixture to egg yolks,stirring the yolks constantly. Once yolks have been mixed with a bit of the warm liquid(I use a small ladle and usually do 3-4 ladels-worth of the warm milk mixture), slowly add the egg yolk mixture into the milk mixture. Be sure to stir constanly with a whisk or heat-proof spatula. Cook until mixture thickens. How long this takes depends on how hot you stove it. Try to resist turning up the heat or you'll wind up with scrambled eggs at the bottom of the pan--ask me how I know this.
Once the mixture is thickened, pour through fine mesh strainer into the vanilla bean/milk. Blend all together well and put in the fridge until chilled. Remove the vanilla bean and pour into your ice cream maker. When it is almost done, add mini chocolate chips.