I was looking for a recipe with a deep, dark colour and intense punch of nuttiness. This recipe did the trick! Using dark sesame paste rather than just dark sesame seeds, both the colour and flavour are really intense. This ice cream recipe is slightly sticky and chewy, my favourite kind of texture for rich flavoured ice cream.
I paired the black sesame ice cream with Kinako marshmallows. Kinako is roasted soybean flour, commonly found in Japan and tastes like extremely nutty peanut butter. I got a big bag from our recent trip to Japan and was also finding a way to use it haha. Thought it'd complement black sesame well - and it did! However the marshmallow medium did impart additional sweetness to the ice cream, which was unnecessary. Next time I might make a less sweet mochi as a mix in instead.
An intensely dark, rich, nutty black sesame ice cream made with dark sesame paste.
Recipe adapted from SeriousEats
Separate eggs, store egg whites for another recipe. Place egg yolks in a medium bowl. Set aside.
In a small saucepan, add brown sugar, salt, heavy cream, milk and black sesame paste. Heat on low heat until steam begins to rise from the surface. Remove from heat.
Temper egg yolks: Add ~4 ladles of of warm milk mixture slowly to the egg yolks, whisking constantly until egg yolks are combined with milk mixture.
Return egg yolk mixture back to saucepan. Return saucepan back to low heat, continually stirring with a heatproof spatula. Heat until the mixture thickens and coats the back of a spatula.
Pour mixture into a resealable ziploc bag, and let cool in fridge completely (preferably overnight).
Once mixture is very cold, churn in your ice cream make per manufacturer's instructions.
In a stand mixing bowl, add gelatine and 30g water. Set aside.
In a saucepan, add sugar, light corn syrup, water and salt. Heat until 121C.
Turn stand mixer on medium speed, whipping the gelatine+water mixture. Stream hot sugar syrup into gelatine mixture and continue whipping until stiff peaks.
On a baking sheet, sprinkle kinako powder. Spread a layer of marshmallow on the powder, let cool at room temperature at 2 hours.
Once marshmallow has set, cut pieces using a scissors and coat with more kinako powder. Serve immediately, adding into ice cream if desired.