Ice Cream Base

• All ice cream starts with the base ingredients. Most home cooks covet their favorite base recipes that include everything from coconut milk to almond extract. The traditional ice cream base comprises a combination of egg yolks, sugar, heavy cream, whole milk and vanilla. Heavy cream is essential to good ice cream. The high fat content found in the heavy cream makes it less likely the ice cream will become icy when stored in the freezer.

Choosing Pistachios

• Making homemade ice cream with salted pistachios gives the finished product a unique blend of sweetness, with just a slight kick of salty deliciousness. When using salted nuts, reduce the salt in the recipe by half to prevent the mixture from becoming too salty. If you’re up for a little extra work, purchase a bag of pistachios in the shell and shuck 1 to 1/2 cups per 2 quarts of ice cream. Use more pistachios, if desired. Alternatively, shelled pistachios are bit more pricy, but more convenient. Do not use red pistachios as they are artificially dyed and the dye may bleed into the ice cream base.

Preparing Pistachios

• There are a variety of ways to prepare pistachios for use in homemade ice cream. Both salted and unsalted pistachios can be used toasted or untoasted; ground or whole. If you prefer toasted nuts, preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Spread the pistachios in a single layer on a cookie sheet and roast them for about 10 minutes or until they are fragrant. Keep an eye on them as you do not want them to burn. Alternatively, rough-chop the pistachios in a food processor.

Putting It Together

• The key to using nuts, chunks of chocolate or any type of candy in homemade ice cream is to add it during the last 5 minutes of processing. It’s crucial to allow the ice cream to thicken so that when you add the “chunky” ingredients, they will incorporate evenly throughout the entire batch -- not merely sink to the bottom.