hello coffee ice cream

So my weekend spent with Eli was much more focused on sewing (Eli may need a fabric intervention, but that's another blog...) but we really packed a lot in a short time. I love spending time in Denver. I always leave relaxed and inspired!! Dinner at Tables was fab, that tuna tar tar was so yummy and those cornmeal waffles... YUM! Anyway we made some tasty food ourselves including the best coffee ice cream I have ever had. I would put it up there with Hagendaas or Starbucks. We used a recipe from Dave Libovitz and when I make it again I'll back off the sugar just a touch maybe down to 1/2 c.. We did not add the coffee grinds at the end, but I'm sure it would be a great finishing touch. It might even offset the sugar.

Coffee Ice Cream

1 1/2 cups whole milk

3/4 cup sugar

1 1/2 cups whole coffee beans (decaf unless you want the caffeine in your ice cream)

Pinch of salt

1 1/2 cups heavy cream

5 large egg yolks

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon finely ground coffee (press grinds through a fine mesh sieve

Heat the milk, sugar, whole coffee beans, salt, and 1/2 cup of the cream in a medium saucepan until it is quite warm and steamy, but not boiling. Once the mixture is warm, cover, remove from the heat, and let steep at room temperature for 1 hour.

Pour the remaining 1 cup of cream into a medium size metal bowl, set on ice over a larger bowl. Set a mesh strainer on top of the bowls. Set aside.

Reheat the milk and coffee mixture, on medium heat, until again hot and steamy (not boiling!). In a separate bowl, whisk the egg yolks together. Slowly pour the heated milk and coffee mixture into the egg yolks, whisking constantly so that the egg yolks are tempered by the warm milk, but not cooked by it. Scrape the warmed egg yolks back into the saucepan.

Stir the mixture constantly over medium heat with a heatproof, flat-bottomed spatula, scraping the bottom as you stir, until the mixture thickens and coats the spatula so that you can run your finger across the coating and have the coating not run. This can take about 10 minutes.

Pour the custard through the strainer and stir it into the cream. Press on the coffee beans in the strainer to extract as much of the coffee flavor as possible. Then discard the beans. Mix in the vanilla and finely ground coffee, and stir until cool.

Chill the mixture thoroughly in the refrigerator, then freeze it in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions.