For the past three weeks, I’ve made ice cream on a weekly basis. The ability to make your own ice cream- and add whatever flavors and sweetener you want- is almost empowering. Want a little more cardamom? Go for it. Less sugar? Easy.
I’ve made this recipe purposefully flexible, while also making sure that certain ingredients/steps AREN’T flexible because otherwise it affects the quality of the final product. The biggest thing I love is that it’s actually really easy to make this dairy-free by using coconut milk. If you’re not a fan of coconut- don’t worry- the flavor won’t come through too much (ask Matt- he didn’t want it to taste coconut-y and he didn’t even notice).
Cinnamon Spice Ice Cream
- 3 cups milk/cream – see options below:, I’ve done all and it’s worked well
- – super creamy and luxurious option: 2 cups heavy cream 1 cup whole milk
- – creamy but a little lighter: 2 cups whole milk 1 cup heavy cream
- – creamy but dairy free: 2 cans coconut milk, full fat is a must
- 3-4 tablespoons light brown sugar, (35g-48g) ** see note
- 3-4 tablespoons white sugar, (35g-48g) ** see note
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 cinnamon sticks
- 1/2 teaspoon cardamom
- 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
- 6 egg yolks
- In a small sauce pot, add milk, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon sticks, and cardamom. Heat over a low flame and stir with a whisk to dissolve the sugar, about 3-5 minutes.
- Whisk egg yolks in a separate bowl. Add in about 1 cup of the milk mixture to the egg yolks and whisk well to combine. Then add in both the egg yolks and the milk.
- Continue to heat over low heat until mixture reaches 170 degrees. It should be slightly thicker, but never boil or get close to a boil. Turn off heat and let mixture sit for 30 minutes.
- Strain mixture through a fine mesh sieve into a tupperware or bowl that you can put in the fridge. Let sit in the fridge for at least 3 hours, up to a day.
- Place mixture into ice cream machine according to directions. For me, it takes about 30 minutes for the ice cream to churn properly. Serve immediately or place in a freezer safe container and keep in the freezer.
- P.S. You can make ice cream sandwiches with these with a cookie of your choice- I loved combining these with these peanut butter miso cookies. Just scoop some ice cream on to a cookie, add another, and place in the freezer to harden before eating.
Notes
**Sugar Notes:
You can use all white sugar if you don’t have light brown sugar and it won’t make a huge difference.
I’ve done this with both a total of 1/2 cup (4 tablespoons each of white and brown sugar) and a total of 1/3 cup sugar (3 tablespoons each)- Matt actually didn’t notice the difference in sweetness, nor did I. 1/3 cup seemed plenty. I’ll always be doing 1/3 cup from now on. However, if you’re looking for a sweeter dessert and don’t care about the amount of sugar, use 1/2 cup for good measure.
Tried this recipe?Mention @Kate_Cooks_ or tag #katecooks!