Oleh Felice, Nothing will beat the vanilla flavor of beans scraped from the pod. If you're going to go through the trouble of making ice cream homemade, then invest in some vanilla beans. Put leftover pods (let dry) in a jar with sugar to make vanilla sugar. This makes about 4 scoops of ice cream, 2-4 servings depending on your appetite;) Just double or triple for a bigger batch. Made without an ice cream maker, though if you have one, you can use it too.