Homemade ice cream is a piece of cake to make if you’ve got the right machine. We lucked out a few years back and found a secondhand Italian gelato machine with a built-in compressor; you don’t have to keep it in the freezer, and it makes perfect ice cream every time. Best $60 we ever spent (they cost about $400 new, unfortunately; it will be a tragic day if I ever burn out the motor with my incessant ice-cream making.)

But a steady diet of ice cream carries the risk of fattened calves and raised cholesterol, so I’m eternally grateful to Bruce Weinstein’s Ultimate Ice Cream Book, which taught me the secret to low fat ice cream: a combination of skim milk and fat-free sweetened condensed milk. The only fat in the recipe comes from the egg yolks.

Technically, I guess it’s more of a custard, but whatever you want to call it, it makes a great dessert. The custard’s best eaten when it’s fresh out of the machine or frozen for a few hours; because there’s no cream it may turn icy after a day or two (not that it ever lasts that long in our household.)

The pumpkin custard I made for Halloween got such rave reviews that I decided to reprise it for the traditional post-Thanksgiving leftover luncheon. For Halloween, we added crumbled up Reese’s peanut butter cups; for today, toasted pecans seemed more appropriate:

CREAM-FREE PECAN PUMPKIN ICE CREAM

Ingredients:

2 cups skim milk
4 egg yolks
1 Tbs cornstarch
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp ginger
16 oz. canned pumpkin
14 oz. can fat free sweetened condensed milk
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup toasted pecan pieces

Bring 2 cups skim milk to a simmer. Remove from heat and beat in egg yolks, cornstarch, and spices. Return mixture to stove and stir over low heat until the custard thickens slightly. Don’t let the mixture boil or the eggs will scramble.

Remove from heat and stir in canned pumpkin. Allow to cool slightly, then add the sweetened condensed milk and vanilla. Cover and chill several hours or overnight. Freeze in your ice cream machine, adding pecans as the custard thickens.

It’s the perfect ending to a meal of turkey sandwiches and leftover stuffing. After all that pie, this light but luscious custard will make you feel positively virtuous.