Coffee Ice Cream

We got an ice cream maker as a wedding present and I have to admit that I have never used it to make ice cream!! I have used to make sorbet and frozen yogurt and some the best pina colada's you have ever tasted but not ice cream.

For my sister's birthday dinner I decided to make a gluten free white cake for her (her favorite) but I wanted to add something to jazz it up and make it birthday celebration worthy. I came across this recipe in my Baked Explorations cook book (that was given to me by my sister) and thought that it would be a great compliment to the cake.

COFFEE ICE CREAM

6 egg yolks

1 3/4 cups heavy cream

2 cups whole milk

3/4 + 2 tbsp sugar

1 tsp salt

3 tbsp instant espresso powder (NOT ground espresso beans)

1 tbsp Kahlua

Put egg yolks in a large heatproof bowl and set aside.

In a medium sauce pan stir together the heavy cream, milk, sugar, salt and instant espresso powder. Bring the mixture to a slow, consistent simmer (just this side of a boil) and remove from heat.

Whisk the egg yolks until just combined, then slowly stream in half of the hot coffee cream mixture while whisking constantly. Trasfer the egg mixture back to the medium saucepan containing the other half of the coffee cream mixture. Heat over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, until mixture is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon (about 175 degrees on an instant read thermometer).

Remove from heat and strain the mixture through a fine mesh sieve into a bowl. Whisk in the Kahlua and let mixture cool to room temperature.

Press a piece of plastic wrap directly onto the surface of the mixture to prevent a skin from forming. Refrigerate 4 hours.

Pour into an ice cream machine and freeze, following the manufacturer's directions.

 

RATINGS:

Party of 6 - 9.5 - "Really good but can't give it a 10 since we don't have anything to compare it to"

NOTE:

I wanted the ice cream to be as fresh as possible so I decided to freeze it while we were eating our meal.  Running the ice cream maker during dinner was not my best idea. I had forgotten how noisy it was. : ( oh well, I will remember this for next time.

While it was nerve wracking to make ice cream from scratch the first time, it wasn't so bad. I will definitely make more ice cream flavors in the future.