The following originally appeared on 5/8/08 at Exit 51
Ice Cream Man
Spring will soon give way to summer and nothing says summer quite like ice cream. I’m continuing my David Lebovitz thread with a modified version of his recipe for Coffee Ice Cream. Feel free to use whole milk instead of half and half. Either way, be prepared for some mind blowing, brain freezing, good ice cream.
I made this once while SFC was gone and thought it would be a great welcome home dessert. And then weeks went by with no time to make it. This week I finally got my act together and viola, we have ice cream.I don’t have any pretty pictures of either the process or final product. And I thought it better not to take a picture of SFC licking his spoon for the last little bit of melted coffee goodness. Suffice it to say that he’s enjoying it immensely. And you will too!
Coffee Ice Cream
Modified from The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz
- 1 1/2 cups half and half
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1 1/2 cups coffee beans (whole)
- pinch of salt 1 1/2 cups heavy cream
- 5 egg yolks
- 1/4 tsp vanilla
In a saucepan over medium heat, warm the half and half, sugar, beans, salt, and 1/2 cup cream until steamy, but not boiling. Cover with a lid, remove from heat and steep for 1 hour at room temperature.
Reheat the milk mixture over medium heat until hot and steamy but again, not boiling.
In another bowl, whisk the egg yolks and slowly pour ladelfulls of the heated milk mixture with the beans into the yolks, whisking constantly to avoid cooking the eggs. Pour the egg mixture back into the saucepan. Set the saucepan over medium heat and cook approximately 10 minutes, stirring constantly, scraping the bottom and corners of the pot, until the mixture coats the back of a spoon.
Pour the remaining cup of cream into a medium bowl over ice. Set a strainer over the bowl.
Pour the custard through the sieve and stir it into the cream, pressing the coffee beans to squeeze out as much liquid as you can. Discard the beans. Mix in the vanilla and stir until cool.
Chill the mixture thoroughly in the refrigerator then freeze according to your ice cream maker’s instructions.
Bon Appetit Hon 
I lurve coffee ice cream. Luckily, a new creamery opened down the street and they always have something coffee flavored. And they have the best maple walnut. And malt chocolate complete with malt balls. And… I gotta stop.
Boo, I encourage you to break free of your dependence on the creamery and try making your own ice cream…at least once. Borrow an ice cream maker for a weekend. Whip up some ice cream, sorbet, or froyo (search over on my old blog Exit 51 for Strawberry Frozen Yogurt). Believe me when I say you won’t be sorry.
I was just discussing coffee ice cream with a coworker yesterday. It’s one of those ice cream flavors that I absolutely love but for some reason, I never get it. I forget to get it.
Thanks for the motivation, not only to get some coffee ice cream down this gullet but to invest in an ice cream machine, as well. It’s summer, for heck’s sake!
Ali, this coffee ice cream rocked my world in all the right ways. It alone justifies the ginormous ice cream maker that lives in my dining room. If I had been thinking, I would have opted to get the ice cream maker attachment for the Kitchen Aid instead of the unitasking machine.
Just in case the Universe is wondering what to get me for my birthday, that would be a great gift.
My husband is lactose-intolerant to a point–while most cheeses are OK, ice cream is a definite no-go. Have you ever made sorbet?
Elizabeth, I too am lactose intolerant which makes my undying love of this recipe bittersweet. Lactaid pills work pretty well for me as long as I remember to take them before diving into the ice cream.
I want to say that I’ve done sorbet once before but can’t recall much about it. I do have a few sorbet recipes that I need to try out. Maybe this will be my summer of sorbet. Do you have any tried and true sorbet recipes that you can recommend?
Sweet Mary has a bunch of sorbet recipes up on her site. This blackberry lime sorbet is the one that I am definitely needing to try and make at home.
This is shocking, but even though I’ve had an ice cream maker, I’ve never actually tried to make real ice cream with it (which is to say I’ve never used cream in my ice cream maker). This is probably why my frozen desserts are always more icy than I would like. So I’ll have to try something like this over the summer (maybe with chocolate-covered coffee beans stirred in!). Have a great weekend!
Jennifer, using fats, like cream or half and half, and chilling the base thoroughly before putting it in the machine will help with the texture and cut down on crystals.
I didn’t put it in the notes but I fancy it up by putting in bits of toffee as the machine goes round. Coffee Toffee Ice Cream, sounds good doesn’t it?
I’m definitely breaking out the ice cream machine for this one! YUM!
Kitch, this recipe has NEVER disappointed me. Hope you enjoy it too.
I am definitely going to have to try this. We have had an ice cream maker for almost 4 years that we have never taken out of the box. Cannot wait!
Katie, show the ice cream maker some love.
Speaking of coffee ice cream……….I just saw an ad for bacon hot sauce online…..just a thought
Emily, I think I have to draw the line at bacon hot sauce.