Friday, March 21, 2014

Maple Coffee Ice Cream

Obviously, summer isn't here yet. But I know it's coming because I've suddenly been wanting ice cream. When fall turns to winter, I lose my interest in chilly desserts. In summer, I make a whole lot of ice cream and we have it for dessert almost every night.

I decided to make a pretty simple ice cream - egg free, no cooking. I started with the idea of maple, but than added just a tiny bit of instant coffee. I really liked the result.

For a little more depth of flavor, I used brown sugar instead of white.

Since I've got an ice cream machine with a compressor, I tossed this in right after mixing. It took a looooong time to churn - almost a full hour. If you have an ice cream maker that uses a freezer bowl, make sure you let the ice cream base chill thoroughly, or you might have trouble getting it to freeze before your ice cream bowl thaws.

And then you'll hate me.

So, let's talk a second about ingredients. It's pretty obvious I love the Crown Maple Whiskey. I use it a lot. The Blis maple syrup is pretty awesome stuff, but it's pricey. You can use regular maple syrup. And then we come to the instant coffee. To be honest, I have no idea what brand it was. It's a little jar of my emergency coffee, just in case my coffee machine breaks or someone steals all my beans.

There's one little trick to the instant coffee. Make sure it dissolved in cold liquid. If it doesn't heat a little bit of the milk, then add the coffee and stir to dissolve. Then add that to the rest of the mixture.

Maple Coffee Ice Cream

2 cups heavy cream
1 cup milk
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup Crown Maple Whiskey
2 tablespoons Blis bourbon-barrel aged maple syrup
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon instant coffee

Combine all the ingredients and stir until the sugar, salt, and coffee* are dissolved and everything is mixed in. Chill well before churning, particularly if you're churning in a machine that has a freezer bowl.

Churn according to the manufacturer's instructions. Transfer to a container and freeze.

*Make sure the instant coffee can dissolve in cold liquid, otherwise heat some milk and dissolve the coffee in that before adding it.
Yum