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It’s been a few years since I’ve actually posted anything in this blog, but I figured it might be time to start writing again. In the past two years, I’ve gotten married to my long time partner in crime, Steven … Continue reading
There is something about coffee ice cream that just makes me so happy when I eat it. (Especially if it’s in a waffle cone… YUM!). I decided to whip up a batch of coffee flavored ice cream. Most recipes that I have found tend to use instant coffee in their ice cream base. I decided that I wanted to try something a little different, and create my coffee flavor using a batch of one of my favorite flavors of coffee, Cafe Verona.
Since I was using freshly ground coffee beans, I thought to myself, “Hey! Just how coarsely should I grind this, and how much?”. At this point, I just shrugged and did a fine grind that equaled about 1/2 cup. For myself, I love the taste of strong, dark roasted coffees (especially since I usually drink my coffee black), and adding extra grounds in a regular pot of coffee has always been something that I’ve done. I would suggest adjusting the potency of coffee according to your own taste.
For some reason, when I started mixing the grounds into the heated cream, I figured it would dissolve… kind of like dutch cocoa. Instead, I had a weird raft of warm coffee grounds, floating on top. It looked terrible, but smelled so good. I decided to strain this mixture before tempering the eggs to prevent graininess. This worked! I got most of the larger grounds out, and the mixture looked much smoother than it did before straining. Back into the saucepan, and I let it thicken over low-medium heat. Of course, the mixture was still flecked with a good amount of ground coffee beans, so I figured, one more strain before going into its cooling container might not be a bad idea.
The end result (after the cooling, chilling, freezing, ice creaming)? A really thick, creamy coffee ice cream that has bits of amazingly delicious coffee nibs strewed through it. Again, adjust the coffee flavor to your own palette… because what I made, is definitely not for the faint of heart!
honey-vanilla and coffee ice cream
Coffee Ice Cream
2 cups heavy cream
1 cup milk
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup freshly ground coffee beans (fine ground if you want flecks, coarse if you want smooth)
3 large egg yolks
1. Combine cream, milk, sugar and coffee grounds in a sauce pan. Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally.
2. In a large bowl, lightly whip egg yolks.
3. Strain the cream mixture into a separate bowl. Discard any loose coffee grounds.
4. Temper* the eggs with the hot cream mixture.
5. Return the mixture to the saucepan. On low-medium heat, stir the mixture constantly until slightly thick (you can tell when this is done when it coats the back of the spoon.) Be very careful with this… DO NOT BOIL!!! You want to have a thick, custard like cream, not scrambled eggs.
5. Strain the mixture one more time, and let it chill to room temperature. Refrigerate at least 4 hours so the mixture is completely cool.
6. Follow the instructions provided with your ice cream machine.
Alright, it’s been a while since I’ve actually posted anything – but here goes… obsession of the season: Ice Cream. Ever since Love and Curtis gave me an ice cream maker attachment for the Kitchen Aid mixer for my birthday, I have been utterly OBSESSED with making ice cream. I remember the first time I made ice cream in my Baking 101 class, the utter feeling of intimidation and dread that I got from learning I had to make it. How in the world could I replicate the delicious creaminess of premium, store bought ice cream? It seems almost impossible! I eventually learned that it’s really as simple as knowing a few key techniques, and practice.
So far in the past four weeks, I’ve made a simple vanilla bean, malted-milk chocolate, buttermilk, and strawberry-nutella. Scouring the various recipe books I have (and the internet), I’ve come to the conclusion that making ice cream is still as fun as it was when I first started.
This week, I’ve decided to make Honey-Vanilla Bean Ice Cream. If you’ve ever had Haagen-Dazs’s Vanilla Honey Bee ice cream, you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about when I start raving about its creaminess, light sweetness, and the overall “melty party in your mouth” sensation. It’s one of my favorite Haagen-Dazs flavors because of its pure, delicious simplicity (plus HD has decided to donate some of its proceeds to fund research to protect disappearing honey bee populations).
I’ve made vanilla bean ice cream recipes that I’ve found in both The Gourmet Cookbook and The New Best Recipe. The former had wonderful flavor – a lot of beautiful vanilla notes accompanied by a slight sweetness from the sugar, but it was lacking a little bit in mouth feel (for my taste anyway). The texture was a little too light for my liking, so I thought I would try the other recipe. The latter, had the opposite effect. It had great texture, but was missing that pop of vanilla that I loved from The Gourmet Cookbook recipe. So I decided to take the best of both worlds, and remove the sugar altogether and replace it with honey.
First off… the honey that I procured, was from the local farmer’s market. It’s really important to get a taste of the variety of honey offered before settling on one to use for ice cream (or anything really). I picked up something called Sage Wildflower honey – the flavors are a little sharper than a typical orange blossom honey, and the color is deeper. I loved it immediately after tasting it, and just had to have it for my ice cream.
I figured, it shouldn’t be too difficult to substitute sugar for honey – after all, the largest concern I really had for the ice cream itself, was the crystallization that sugar often has an effect on its texture. With honey, the trick was to let it dissolve completely (like sugar), when warming up the cream mixture.
Oh heaven. That is all I’m going to say for now.
Honey-Vanilla Bean Ice Cream
2 cups heavy cream
1 cup whole milk
1/2 cup sage wildflower honey
2-3 vanilla beans, split and scraped (depends on your own taste buds! I looooove extra vanilla)
3 large egg yolks
1. Combine cream, milk, vanilla (seeds and pod), honey in a sauce pan. Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally.
2. In a large bowl, lightly whip egg yolks.
3. Temper* the eggs with the hot cream mixture.
4. Return the mixture to the saucepan. On low-medium heat, stir the mixture constantly until slightly thick (you can tell when this is done when it coats the back of the spoon.) Be very careful with this… DO NOT BOIL!!! You want to have a thick, custard like cream, not scrambled eggs.
5. Strain the mixture, and let it chill to room temperature. Refrigerate at least 4 hours so the mixture is completely cool. (at this point you have the vanilla pods still in the mixture. if you’re like me, you hate throwing these things away. so, you’re going to want to rinse them, pat dry, air dry, then add them to a jar of sugar. it’s one of the easiest ways to make homemade vanilla sugar!)
6. Follow the instructions provided with your ice cream machine.
*Temper – to bring the eggs to the same temperature as the hot cream without scrambling them. The trick to doing this is to slowly introduce the hot liquid to the cold eggs. While whisking the eggs constantly in the large bowl, slowly pour about 1/2 cup of hot liquid to the eggs. Do NOT stop whisking – this keeps your egg mixture nice and smooth, and prevents scrambling. Repeat this process until all the hot liquid has been incorporated.
