Tuesday, March 3, 2015
Today I
bring you pink ice cream! Specifically,
pink Peppermint Ice Cream with Chocolate Chips.
Personally, I think it’s an odd choice for the end of February/early
March, but it wasn’t my week to choose and I seem to be the only person in the apartment
who thinks ice cream should be made thematically. –shrugs-
Some people just don’t understand ice cream the way I do.
Before I
give you all the recipe, I should say that this recipe caused me a few
problems. Despite my best efforts, I
just couldn’t get it right. The end
product wasn’t nearly as firm as I’d like and melted quite easily – even after being
left in the freezer for a few days. The
problem most likely stemmed from the custard base, which I didn’t let cook long
enough. The custard base should come off
the stove thick, and after cooling in the fridge, it should basically have the
consistency of pudding. My custard never
got that consistency. I took it off the
heat too early because I was worried about the egg curdling.
Here’s the
thing about egg curdling in your ice cream base: it’s not the end of the
world. Several weeks ago when I made my
first custard base for the Cinnamon-Basil
Ice Cream, I got very agitated at
the thought of curdling. The recipe had
explicitly warned me not to curdle my eggs and here I was doing exactly that! I was a failure as an ice cream maker and I
did not deserve Javier, my beautiful teal ice cream maker.
Since then,
I’ve noticed that recipes that call for a custard base usually tell you to
strain the custard afterwards. The only
reason to strain your custard is to get rid of the fine, white, curd-like
pieces that are the slightly curdled eggs.
A bit of ice cream forum reading has revealed that no one is worried
about a slight curdling of the eggs.
It’s just a thing that happens, and it’s infinitely preferable to having
soggy, melty ice cream.
So in
summary: when cooking a custard base, make sure you get it to thicken and don’t
freak out over a little bit of egg curdling.
Just remove from heat, beat vigorously to smooth out, and, if necessary,
strain. Then move on.
With that
being said, I present you with Peppermint Ice Cream with Chocolate Chips. The following recipe comes, once again, from Ice Cream and Frozen Desserts by Peggy
Fallon (though I added the semi-sweet chocolate chips myself).
Ingredients
- 2 ½ cups whole milk
- 2 egg yolks
- 1 14 oz can of sweetened condensed milk
- 2/3 cup crushed peppermint candles
- 2/3 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon peppermint extract
Directions
- In a heavy medium saucepan, bring the milk to a simmer over medium heat. Cook, stirring, for about 5 minutes, or until the mixture is hot and bubbles just begin to form at the edges. Remove from heat and allow to cool.
- Beat the egg yolks lightly in a medium bowl. Gradually whisk in the milk ¼ cup at a time. Return the egg mixture to the saucepan, reduce the heat to medium-low, and cook, stirring, until the custard thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon. Do not boil or the egg yolks will curdle.
- If necessary, strain the custard into a large bowl. Whisk in the sweetened condensed milk. Refrigerate, covered, until the custard is very cold, at least 4 hours though preferably overnight.
- Stir in half of the crushed peppermint candies and chocolate chips and the vanilla and peppermint extract. Pour the custard into the canister of an ice cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturer’s directions.
- When the ice cream is almost done, add the remaining crushed peppermint candies and chocolate chips and process until the ice cream is ready and the candies and chocolate are incorporated. Transfer the ice cream to a covered container and freeze until it is firm enough to scoop, at least 4 hours but preferably overnight.
The
ice cream will turn a beautiful, bright pink and have little, crunchy pieces of
peppermint. It will smell incredible –
very sweet and minty – and the chocolate chips will help bring out the minty
flavor. It’s actually a very refreshing
flavor and something I’d love to eat during December or January with a hot
chocolate. Next time, though, I’m going
to cook it longer and get the consistency I want (and crush the peppermints a
bit larger – they almost disappeared in the churning process!).
Overview
- Base prep time: 30 minutes
- Base chill time: overnight
- Ice cream set time: overnight
- Taste: intensely minty with pleasant little crunches of peppermints and sweet bits of chocolate
- Difficulty level: low to medium
- Expense level: low to medium
- Makes: about 4 cups (1 quart)
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