Ice Cream 101

1. Use the best quality ingredients. Good eggs, good milk, good cream. Duh.
2. Use egg yolks and cook your custard. Yes, it's a pain in the ass, but it's worth the mess. It makes for a richer, creamier, less icy ice cream. For fruit forward ice creams, use only a couple yolks so that the egg doesn't mask the bright fruit flavor.
3. A pinch of salt brings out more flavor. Do it. Always.
4. Don't over sugar. A lot of recipes call for 3/4 cup or more of sugar. Cream is naturally sweet, so a heaping 1/2 cup will usually do ya for a quart recipe.
5. Cool your custard completely before churning. Some even swear by cooling it overnight in the fridge before churning for the creamiest ice cream ever.
6. Adding a splash of booze helps prevent ice crystals from forming. Even just a tablespoon.
7. Get creative with flavors but don't go rogue. I once tasted Pizza Ice Cream and it was disgusting. "A" for effort, but nope. Classics are classics for a reason. Start there and then let your imagination run wild.
8. Don't go overboard with putting too much "stuff" in your ice cream. A cup of nuts might not seem like a lot but once it's mixed into a quart of ice cream, it's well, nuts. Go easy on the mix-ins to strike that balance of cream to crunch. I personally think toppings are superior to mix-ins.
9. If you're using a freezer bowl ice cream maker, make sure to pre-freeze the bowl at least 24 hours before churning ice cream. I've learned this the hard way. If the bowl isn't super cold, your ice cream will never come together. And that is awful.
10. If you want to make batch after batch of ice cream, invest in a compressor ice cream maker. They are more expensive but you don't have to pre-freeze the bowl so you'll never have another ice cream disaster on your hands. I highly recommend.
11. Always have ice cream in your freezer for when friends come over. They love that.