I just got an ice cream maker and I wanted to make ice cream like the ice cream in the Atkins Cook Book. The one thing I can't find is vanill bean? Where do you buy these? In fact, what do they even look like? Thanks a lot for the help.

Either at a "gourmet" food store or a natural foods store. You can use pure vanilla extract - not imitation - though instead of the beans. The beans can be rather pricey. There is also vanilla bean paste available that is a little less expensive.

Karen

Thanks for the reply. If I were to use pure vanilla extract, how much would I use in place of the vanilla bean?

Two teaspoons should do it. But make sure it's pure vanilla extract, not artificial vanilla extract.

Karen

Thanks a lot, again, for your reply.

I buy vanilla beans from my local supermarket in the spices section. Then, I chop the bean into 1/2 inch segments and put them in a bottle of brandy for a month or longer, which makes a really wonderful vanilla extract. I try to have more than one steeping at a time so that the strength of the vanilla is even better than most store-bought extracts. Good stuff.