I love coffee flavor, especially in ice cream. Stopped drinking coffee many years ago, but still adore coffee ice cream. Since I am so sensitive to caffeine, I use decaf in this recipe, but feel free to use your favorite rocket fuel.
During and after Covid-19, I lost my sense of smell and taste. That was really hard. It slowly came back, but some foods and beverages still smell weird to me. Brewed coffee is one of them. Toothpaste is another. How random is that?
This recipe is based on David Lebovitz’s recipe for Coffee Ice Cream. As I mentioned in last Sunday’s post, he is, to me, the last word on dessert. He lives and blogs from Paris, real deal. David (we’re on a first name basis) uses whole coffee beans steeped in the sugar, milk, and cream mixture.
I’ve tried that and liked it, but this time I needed to use decaf, and I could only find ground decaf in the store on this trip. This turned out to be one of those “Make Lemonade from Lemons” moments. Using a French press and mesh strainer, I discovered that I had much greater control over the level of coffee flavor in the dairy mix. This is important due to the muting effect that cold has on flavor. Remember that you may need to adjust the amount of your ingredients to compensate for this effect.
I’m not usually one for expensive ingredients, but ice cream is an exception to the rule. Buy the best milk, cream, and coffee you can afford. We splurge on High Lawn Farm milk and cream, and fresh eggs from a local farm. Get a pound of great whole bean coffee, store the unused portion in an airtight container in a cool place.
This is one of my favorite ice creams just as a coffee vehicle. The addition of bittersweet chocolate shards elevates it to cult-worthy status. Read on for a trick that makes it so much better than plain old chocolate chips.
Recipe
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups whole milk
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup ground decaf
large pinch of salt
5 large egg yolks
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp instant espresso powder
2-3 oz. bittersweet chocolate
Directions
Add coffee to a French Press.
In a saucepan, add the sugar, salt, milk, and 1/2 cup heavy cream. Warm on medium heat to a simmer. Do not boil. Add to French Press. (If you don’t have one, just add the coffee to the saucepan, and remove from heat.)
Steep for one hour.
Whisk egg yolks in a medium bowl.
Pour steeped mixture through a mesh strainer back into the saucepan. Bring to a simmer on medium heat.
Ladle a little into the egg yolks while whisking constantly. This is called tempering (see Notes). Don’t use too much or you will cook the yolks. Bad!
Add a few more ladles of the coffee mix, whisking, then add the contents of the bowl back into the saucepan.
Reduce heat to medium low, then stir continuously. You’re making a custard, and you need to heat those egg yolks gently so they thicken.
Set up an ice bath and add the remaining cup of heavy cream to the empty bowl on top of the ice bath.
When the mix coats the back of a spoon and is around 175º-180º, pour the mix through a fine mesh strainer into the bowl of cream.
Stir for several minutes, then let cool for 15 minutes.
Add espresso powder and vanilla. Stir to combine.
Once the custard reaches 75º-80º, pour into a container, cover, and refrigerate between 4-24 hours.
Time to churn!
Melt chocolate in microwave, reserve.
Pour custard into ice cream maker, churn.
When almost finished, drizzle the melted chocolate with a tablespoon into the ice cream while finishing the churning. It will turn into shards.
Spoon mixture into airtight containers.
Freeze for 24 hours.
Serve with Johann Strauss playing in the background.