A few weeks back, an ex-colleague who moved away came back to Singapore to visit. He was always into coffee and recently started roasting his own coffee beans and selling them online. He gifted me a bag of lovely beans and I used them in this coffee ice cream recipe.
Poppy with a bag of @badartistcoffeeco beans
As kids, my siblings and I surprisingly favoured “adult” ice cream flavours like Matcha and Coffee, especially the ones from Häagen-Dazs. They were (still are?) one of the more expensive brands around so it was definitely a luxury to have them once in awhile. I haven’t had coffee ice cream in a long while so this took me down memory lane 🙂
This recipe is from David Lebovit’s cookbook “The Perfect Scoop”. It’s one of my favourite ice cream recipes, and I haven’t been disappointed in any recipe I’ve tried! The recipe uses whole coffee beans instead of ground beans so the ice cream comes out “clean” without specks of ground coffee. I prefer it this way, but you can always add a touch of finely ground coffee for varied texture.
I took a leaf from Salt & Straw’s book and added melted chocolate for “chocolate freckles”, inspired by their Freckled Woodblock Chocolate Ice Cream. As the ice cream maker is spinning, just as the ice cream is almost finished, you pour melted chocolate in, allowing it to freeze and break up as it is incorporated into the base. This method disperses tiny frozen flecks — or freckles — of chocolate throughout the ice cream. These chocolate flecks are extremely thin and melt immediately when it hits your tongue. I’m a huge fan of mocha so the addition of chocolate was a no-brainer for me. By the time I had my chocolate ready, my ice cream was already done churning so I ended up folding it in. It is recommended to drizzle the warm chocolate into the ice cream as you’re churning it for more even distribution.
Coffee Ice Cream
Aromatic, creamy, coffee-forward ice cream base paired with chocolate "freckles". Use any whole coffee beans from your favourite local coffee store!
Ingredients
Coffee Ice Cream
Mix-in: Chocolate Freckles
Instructions
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Add milk, sugar, whole coffee beans, salt and 125g of heavy cream in a medium saucepan. Heat over stove until mixture is warm, and cover to let steep for ~1 hour.
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Pour remaining 250g of heavy cream into a large bowl or resealable plastic bag (or where ever you will be storing the final ice cream mixture to chill in fridge before churning).
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Separate eggs and add egg yolks to a medium bowl. Discard egg whites or store for another recipe.
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After steeping coffee beans in milk mixture for ~1 hour, reheat the mixture just until steam begins to rise from the milk. Slowly pour warm coffee mixture into the bowl of egg yolks, whisking constantly to temper the egg yolks. Transfer warmed egg yolk mixture back into the saucepan.
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Stir mixture in saucepan constantly with a heatproof spatula over low-medium heat, until the mixture thickens and coats the spatula.
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Pour custard through a strainer into the 250g heavy cream. Press on coffee beans in the strainer to extract as much of the coffee flavour as possible, discard the beans after. Mix custard with heavy cream until combined, let sit over an ice bath until cool.
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Chill the mixture thoroughly in the refrigerator, then freeze it in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions.
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Optional mix-in: Drizzle in melted chocolate while ice cream is churning in the machine (recommended), or mix it in before storing.
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Ice cream can be served immediately for a soft-serve consistency, or set in freezer for at least 4 hours before serving.
