Coffee Ice Cream

For many months I have stopped buying ice creams from the super markets. In between I have gone to our nearest ice cream parlour may be 2 or 3 times, but otherwise I ate only homemade ice creams. I concentrated on improving my texture, taste and its smoothness, And when in your home you almost always have 4-5 boxes of frozen treats, buying ice creams from the shops means an additional hazzard as well as burden.

Then today we had this lunch invitation and after a beautiful Biriyani and Chicken Curry, we ate Vanilla Ice Cream with Nutty Caramel Swirl. Ahhh...what can I say...it was sooo heavenly that I almost started to lick the spoon, and then to prevent myself from more embarrassing displays I put the bowl away. It almost instantly gave me the idea of making a caramel ice cream, specially a swirl one. I thought about chocolate swirl, straberry and butter scotch swirl, without even realizing that I have chocolate and peach ice cream lined up for posting and I already have ingredients ready for raspberry and caramelized banana with hazelnuts ice cream. I have to finish them all.

Making ice creams are so much fun and easy, I can not tell you in words. Its like having a blank canvas and then painting with your choice of color with least hasitation that you will go wrong. You can never ever go wrong with an ice cream, because making custards are so damn easy. I always insist everyone to make everything from scratch. If you are reading me then do give making ice creams in home a try. The result do worth a try.

Today I am sharing my another beloved Coffee Ice Cream. Its just the plain custard simmered with instant coffee powder or coffee beans and then made into ice cream according to your preference. You can tweak this recipe as many ways as you want. You can add chocolate chip in this. You can add Mocha or Espresso or Cappuccino in place of just plain coffee. You can also increase or decrease the amount of coffee according to your preference of hard or light. Play along and make wonderful coffee ice creams for dessert.

Coffee Ice Cream
Serves 6-8

Ingredients:

• 3 large eggs
• 1 cup heavy whipping cream
• 1 cup whole milk
• 1 tbsp instant coffee powder
• 1/2 cup sugar

Method:

• In a saucepan pour in the heavy cream with the whole milk and simmer on a low flame, until bubble starts to form on the edges. Do not let it come to a boil.
• In the meantime in a bowl whisk in the eggs and mix in the sugar. With the help of a hand blender blend until the eggs become very smooth and frothy and when poured it forms a ribbon.
• Slowly pour the simmered milk into the egg mixture while constantly whisking the eggs. Do not pour the milk right away or you will have a bowl of scrambled eggs.
• Once every thing becomes perfectly incorporated pour the entire mixture into the saucepan again and mix in the instant coffee powder.
• Now put the saucepan again on low flame and keep stirring for 2-3 minutes, or until the mixture becomes of a sauce like consistency. It will be able to cover the back of the spatula.
• At this moment you stop and pour the custard in a bowl. You can also place the bowl in a big pan of ice to immediately stop the cooking.
• Let it come to room temperature and make ice cream with the help of an ice cream machine.
• If you do not have an ice cream machine then freeze the custard with a plastic wrap on top to prevent the formation of any ice crystals.
• When it is set, put the mixture in a blender and blend until smooth. Do this process for 2-3 times and finally you will have something of a soft serve consistency. If you want to add in any nuts or sauce or chocolate chips, do this at this tage.
•  Freeze the mixture then for 6-8 hours or overnight to firm up. Let it sit in room temperature for 7-10 minutes before serving.