In a previous post, I mentioned that Ronnybrook Farm Dairy was a player in my local farmers market. I am thrilled about it. A couple of weeks ago, I finally got to try their ginger crème brulee ice cream. It was delicious. What I liked the most about it: the crystallized bits of ginger. Although I wished there had been more of them. But I suppose this is Ronnybrook ice cream, not Ben & Jerry – it’s not overkill. Of course the ice-cream churning fanatic that I am HAD to try to make my own ginger crème brulee ice cream. I was a bit disappointed that the Ronnybrook version was all about the ginger and left the crème brulee aside –false advertising in a way… And I wanted to make an ice cream with less superfluous ingredients such as natural flavors and stabilizers and guar gum and caramel coloring and beta-carotene…. Just pure ice cream. With a ginger element and a crème brulee element. For better and for worse.
I do not own an ice cream maker. I don’t have room for one. It does not stop me from churning ice cream all year long. Just as delicious as the machine-made ice cream. Believe me.
Ginger Crème Brulee Ice Cream: (Crème Brulée Glacée au Gingembre)
4 egg yolks, whisk together
about 6 inches worth of ginger, peeled and grated
½ cup granulate sugar
2 cups heavy cream
1 cup half and half
1 cup milk (it doesn’t have to be whole milk, but who are we fooling here?)
and that’s ALL!
The first step is to make caramel, which can be tricky. Throw your ½ cup of sugar in a heavy saucepan and cook on medium high heat WITHOUT stirring. When the sugar is caramelized half way through, you can lower the heat to avoid any burning. The sugar should slowly caramelized, first the edge, then progressively towards the center. Again, do not stir.
Once the caramel is done, throw in one cup of cream away from the heat and whisking constantly. Protect your arms and hands as the caramel will be angry and foamy for a few seconds. Whisk in the rest of the dairy and return the pan to the fire (low heat) until caramel solids if there are any, are fully dissolve.
Add in the grated ginger, then pour a bit of warm cream on the beaten egg yolks to temper them. Stir in the rest of the caramel cream.
Pour this mixture back in the pan. Now is time to make a custard. Cook the creamy mixture on low heat, stirring constantly until it thickens. Be careful not to let the custard boil or you will have nasty clumps in there and will have to pass the custard through a sieve.
Once the custard has become thick enough (about the point when its temperature reaches 170F), remove from the heat. Let cool.
Transfer to a large sealable Tupperware box or bowl covered with plastic wrap and put away in your fridge for the night (or at least 3 hours).
In the morning, freeze your aged custard in an ice cream maker, or, if you do not own an ice cream maker, put your Tupperware box in the freezer for 2 hours.
After these 2 hours, get the box out of the freezer and, with an electric beater, beat the custard for a few minutes to break the crystals.
Replace the box in the freezer for 2 hours, after which, repeat the beating. Again, freeze the ice cream 2 hours before beating one last time.
Give it 2 more hours before serving. This means that you should have ice cream ready to serve in the afternoon!
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| Tasted positive by my 2 year old son |
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| Thanks Ronnybrook Farm for helping me make delicious ice cream! |
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| Caramelizing stage 1 |
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| stage 2 - NO STIRRING PLEASE! |
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| Stage 3 - Hands in my pocket |
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| Gingerizing the caramel cream |
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| Making custard |
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| Ready for aging |
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| After 2 hours in the freezer, let's beat that puppy... |
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| Breaking nasty crystals |
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| Who wants to lick the whisks? |
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| Ginger creme brulee ice cream and little Joules |
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