Coffee Ice Cream can often be quite difficult to make. Firstly coffee strength is a personal taste and so it is sometimes very tricky to judge exactly how much coffee you need to put in to the ice cream. Secondly coffee as a flavour can be pretty bitter so you need to be very careful that you get the balance of bitterness and sweetness exactly right. And finally, to make a truly good coffee ice cream you have to make a really really strong cup of coffee, and no matter how many times you make it you always worry that it is going to be far too bitter and far too strong.
Hopefully after all this negativity I haven't put you off trying my recipe for coffee ice cream. This homemade ice cream has a wonderful grown up flavour and goes down really well at dinner parties. For me it is a winter dessert, just perfect to be eaten after an evening meal with friends and family. Perfect in its own right it is also great to add other ingredients to. Underneath this recipe I have written a tip for adding a liqueur and if you want to make a divine coffee and chocolate ice cream you can check out my Chocolate 7 heaven ezine article or find it on my website.
Recipe for Coffee and Cream Ice Cream
Measurements are in both metric, which I use being a Brit living in France and American. There is a difference in the cream and milk quantity for metric and american measurements because I use double cream in my recipes which is heavier than the american heavy cream.
375ml Milk / 1 1/4 Cups Milk
225ml Double Cream / 1 1/4 Cups Heavy Cream
4 Large Egg Yolks 125g / 1/2 Cup Brown Sugar
1 Vanilla Pod
1/2 teaspoon Ground Nutmeg
4 tablespoons Ground Coffee
200ml / 1 Cup Water
Boil the water and make the coffee either in your coffee maker or in a jug. Add the half teaspoon of nutmeg and let it stand for a few hours.
Scrape the seeds from the vanilla pod in to the milk and cream and heat until the liquid is almost boiling. DO NOT LET IT BOIL. Put to one side and let it cool.
Put the egg yolks and the sugar in to a bowl and mix until the sugar has dissolved. Add this to the cream and milk that has been reheated almost to boiling point again and then heat over a low heat for about ten minutes until you have a mixture that is thick enough to coat he back of a spoon.
Add your coffee to the mixture, if this has been made in a jug you will need to sieve the coffee liquid to ensure you get no grains in the mixture, and pour in to an Ice Cream Maker, churning as per your manufacturer's instructions. Freeze and use within a week.
To make a coffee liqueur ice cream add a 30ml or 2 tablespoons of your favourite liqueur to the coffee when it is standing in the jug. Tia Maria is my personal favourite, closely followed by Amaretto.
