I love coffee. It’s been a big part of my life given the fact I grew up working in a coffee bar in some respects. I’m a summer child, and overly passionate about frozen treats of all kinds. Eventually this ice-cream recipe was bore from that love of these things.
It’s gotten a lot of good feedback. I still think there is room for improvement but this is my core coffee flavour. I will also have a full cold press and perhaps a Philadelphia style ice-cream or sherbet style at some point.
Why I’ve done it this way
This is for the base only, in the pictured tubs you will see mix-ins.
To my own, I’ve added maple butter toasted walnuts and a black cocoa swirl <which I’ll link here when written up fully and pictured>. This recipe has been left plain so you can come up with some of your own combinations.
I’ve chosen a half and half brew method because most people seem to gravitate towards it for familiarity.
Some ingredients I’ve used
Coffee beans: This is used for the whole bean and the brewed coffee. I would recommend you find an espresso style roast. I’ve gone for the one I tend to drink daily, “Cattle Market Espresso Arabica Roasted Coffee” by White Rose Coffee Roasters. Lovely coffee, great customer service. Not an affiliate, I just like what they do.
Sour Cream: But it’s tangy? Yes, but it works with this and helps us balance out the water in the coffee.
Mix-ins: If you are adding mix-ins, try to add around half a cup or there about to taste, and about the same for sauce additions, just bear in mind this will increase the storage volume overall.
Method Notes
You can use your preferred method to temper the eggs, such as the blender method or stovetop/hob.
Storage Discussion
Getting it to down to freezing temperature quickly is key for good ice-cream so you end up with less ice crystals, resulting in a better mouthfeel.
How long this lasts before it starts to get it’s quality ruined by our cold freezers will generally depend how your storing it, whether your freezer is auto-defrost and such. In these cardboard style tubs, they generally last the week fine. Maybe a little longer if you film over the exposed surface of the ice-cream.
In double wall tubs, they tend to last a few months.
Metal and glass are about the same as cardboard. It’s fine if they crystallise a bit, it’s only how it feels for the most part. But that goes only as far as short term storage. I would not recommend long term storage in general. You can re-churn as long as it’s not “off” but anything past a few weeks is your own risk.
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Coffee Ice Cream
A close contender to the banana. Even non-coffee fans have either lied to my face and had extra to please me, or it’s been a big hit.
Sour and double cream used in this recipe to offset water content of coffee.
Part cold press, part brewed. My favourite so far. Will likely update this at some point to get fats and sugars a little more on point.
Ingredients
Equipment
- Ice Cream maker
- Measuring jug (ideally 1 -2 litres volume)
- Mixing bowls (small, medium & large)
- Pan (ideal size here, and minimum)
- Stirring paddle
- Whisk
- Weigh scales
- Ice Cream storage device
- Espresso machine or percolator
- Sieve
- Ice
- Cold water
Ingredients
- 180g Double Cream
- 420g Whole Milk
- 100g Sour Cream
- 100g egg yolks, or close to
- 50g Espresso beans, crushed if you prefer. You can leave them whole.
- Extra coffee: Brewed Strong Coffee (Espresso or percolator). Enough to colour and round the taste, I used about 4-5 espresso shots. Use caution. Taste it. You’ll decide what you like here to a point. Try to use 120-150ml here. See Notes.
- 130g Sugar
Instructions
- Prior to start day 1: Gather your equipment and ingredients. Keep the cream and sour cream in the fridge. It won’t be needed today.
- Clean pan, whisk, jug. Get the milk and the coffee beans prepped.
- Infuse the milk: Put the milk and beans in a pan, and gently heat it ’til it begins to get warm but not incredibly hot. Around 65c.
Coffee beans soaking in milk. - Get the jug, make sure it’s as clean as possible to increase the lifespan of the ice cream. Put the milk and bean mix in the jug. Cool, wrap and store the milk mixture ideally overnight, I usually leave it around 24h.
- Prior to start day 2: Gather and clean your equipment, prep work surfaces etc, read up ahead. Decide how you’re going to pasteurise them using your preferred methods or one of these: blender method or stovetop/hob.
- Temper the eggs: Additionally before we begin to get the custard going, get your milk (can be cold) and eggs (I work these from room temp for this) ready.
- Measure and combine in a jug the sour cream and double cream. Keep that cold in the fridge for now.
- Prep your ice and water bath using the large bowl combination, sit a medium/large bowl inside it (smaller than the one being used for the ice water), leave room so water doesn’t get into your bowl sat inside.
- Separate eggs if using whole, storing the whites and finding a way to use them later is ideal.
- Get the separated bowl of yolks, whisk and sieve lumps using a sieve.
- Pasteurise the eggs with milk using one of the two methods linked here: blender method or stovetop/hob.
- Add the brewed coffee liquid, whisk in quickly and thoroughly. Turn off the heat once done.
Heating the mixture - Cooling Phase: To begin to cool quickly we can add the double and sour cream mix.
- Sieve into the bowl sat inside the ice bath and cool further, keeping it stirring to keep lumps from forming gently so not to spill water.
Coffee Ice Cream Custard Base - Pour into storage jug and wrap it over.
- Refrigerate for 4 hours min to overnight.
- Churn base using your ice-cream makers methods. Freezing times will vary according to your own machine. Mine is usually less than 10-15 min.
Coffee Ice Cream in Churning. - Once churned: Add in mix-ins with a spatula, folding it through by hand. Add swirls and sauces as preferred.
- Tub and freeze this as fast as you can.
- Freeze for a couple of hours to harden prior to serving, 1 will be fairly soft-serve (as long as you churned it fully) and up to about 8!
Notes
Ingredients: Coffee (Liquid) A little more should be fine, too much and you might find it gets icy without adding fats. I’ve not yet done the full maths. The same might apply for the beans.
Step 2 Notes: Some like to break the beans up and strain with cheesecloth after. I tend not to so I can use standard sieve.
Defrost to serving consistency for 20-60m or so in fridge for best results. Times can vary according to temperature of fridge and consistency desired.
Storage life tends to be longer if you do not have an auto-defrost/frost-free freezer due to them often being a little more stable temperature wise.
Keeping everything super clean while doing this is going to help the lifespan of your ice cream. It’s worth doing some research. I’ll write up more one day.
