Coffee ice cream

Creamy ice cream that tastes like a good milky coffee. The coffee is infused straight into the cream.

Don’t add coffee to ice cream as brewed espresso — the water would dilute the mix and make the ice cream icy. The flavour carries far better from whole beans steeped in warm milk and cream, as coffee aromas dissolve in fat. A spoonful of good instant coffee guarantees the intensity without adding water. Four yolks give a full, smooth texture.

Type: Classic cream ice cream · Servings: 8 · Difficulty: Moderate

Equipment

Ingredients

  • 500 g whole milk 3.5 %
  • 330 g whipping cream 33 %
  • 25 g skimmed milk powder
  • 12 g instant coffee (2 tablespoons of a good one; optionally also 60 g of whole roasted beans for infusing)
  • 80 g egg yolk (4 yolks)
  • 140 g granulated sugar (sucrose)
  • 40 g dextrose (glucose powder)

Making the mix

  1. Heat the milk, cream and whole coffee beans (if using) until almost boiling. Take off the heat, cover and leave to infuse for 30 minutes.
  2. Strain out the beans, pressing them well. Top the milk back up to its original weight, stir in the instant coffee, milk powder and dextrose and heat again.
  3. Whisk the egg yolks with the sugar (or the part of it the recipe specifies) until pale and foamy.
  4. Whisking constantly, pour about a third of the hot milk mixture onto the yolks in a thin stream, then tip everything back into the pan.
  5. Stir over a low heat with a wooden spoon until the custard thickens and reaches 82–84 °C (it coats the spoon and a line drawn with your finger holds). Don’t let it boil, or the yolks will curdle.
  6. Immediately strain the custard through a fine sieve into a bowl set in iced water.
  7. Cool the custard, stirring now and then, press cling film directly onto the surface and age in the fridge for at least 4 hours, ideally overnight.

Method — Compressor ice cream maker

  1. Switch on the ice cream maker 5–10 minutes ahead so the bowl can pre-chill.
  2. Pour in the chilled mix no higher than the fill line (with a smaller bowl, churn in two batches) and churn for 30–40 minutes, until it has the consistency of thick whipped cream.
  3. Transfer to a chilled container, press cling film onto the surface and leave to harden in the freezer for 2 hours.

Total time: 7 h 40 min

Method — Freezer-bowl ice cream maker

  1. Take the frozen bowl out of the freezer just before use, fit the paddle and switch the machine on.
  2. With the machine running, pour in the chilled mix — no more than two-thirds full; freeze the rest as a second batch.
  3. Churn for 20–30 minutes, until the ice cream thickens. There’s no point going longer — by then the bowl has warmed up.
  4. Transfer to a chilled container and leave to harden in the freezer for 3 hours.

Freeze the bowl for at least 24 hours beforehand (until you can no longer hear the coolant sloshing inside). The mix must be thoroughly chilled.

Total time: 8 h 30 min

Method — Ninja CREAMi and similar machines

  1. Divide the chilled mix between CREAMi tubs, filling each no higher than the MAX line (a full batch makes about two standard tubs).
  2. Put the lids on and freeze on a level surface for 24 hours.
  3. Place a tub in the machine and run the Ice Cream program.
  4. If the ice cream is crumbly or powdery, run Re-spin (many users add 1–2 tablespoons of milk first).

Programme: Ice Cream

A standard tub holds about 470 ml, a Deluxe tub about 700 ml. Don’t fill above the MAX line, and freeze it level — the machine doesn’t handle an uneven block well.

Total time: 29 h 10 min

Method — No-machine method

  1. Pour the chilled mix into a deep metal or glass container (a baking dish, for example) and put it in the freezer.
  2. After 45 minutes, stir the mix thoroughly with a whisk, spatula or stick blender, working the frozen edges into the centre.
  3. Repeat every 30 minutes, 4–5 times in all, until the ice cream is thick and smooth.
  4. Leave to harden for another hour.

Without a machine you get more ice crystals and less air, so the ice cream is denser. Every stir breaks up the crystals, so don’t skip any.

Total time: 9 h 5 min

Stages

Preparation
15 min
Cooking
20 min
Cooling
30 min
Ageing in the fridge
4 h
Churning
35 min
Hardening in the freezer
2 h
Total time
7 h 40 min

Serving and storage

Wonderful as an affogato: a scoop of ice cream drowned in hot espresso. Or with a square of dark chocolate and a biscuit.

In a sealed container with cling film pressed onto the surface it’s best within a week; after that, ice crystals start to build up. Never refreeze ice cream that has melted.

Tips

  • Don’t grind the beans — ground coffee would cloud the mix and make it bitter and astringent.
  • For children or for serving in the evening, use decaf; the flavour stays the same.
  • At the end of churning you can stir in 60 g of chopped dark chocolate or chocolate-coated coffee beans.

Sources