Homemade Coffee Chip Ice Cream. I would like this to be subtitled: Possibly the Best Coffee Ice Cream on the Planet. My love of ice cream really knows no bounds, I almost never go a day without it. Once you combine coffee AND ice cream, I can’t be stopped. But my biggest complaint: there is never enough coffee flavor in store-bought coffee ice cream. So I made it my mission to make the best coffee-flavored coffee ice cream you have ever had and honestly (back to my modest days), I pulled it off.
Making the Ice Cream Base
Ice cream is not difficult to make. It just requires a watchful eye and a tip or two to make it perfect. Step one is combining the first half of the ingredients and a lot of coffee beans. We steep those beans in some milk until the milk heats. It is important we just HEAT the milk until it is steamy and don’t cook the milk. A cooked milk flavor can taint the final product taste. So be patient and stir, but this shouldn’t take long.
Leaving the coffee beans in all the way until we churn is part of the way we get a lot of coffee flavor, but the extra oomph comes from step two. In part two, we combine the second half of the base including the egg yolks. Combining the two is really the ONLY tricky part. We pour it in slowly and in thirds to ensure we are very slowly cooking the egg yolks and not making scrambled eggs.
Finally – the spoon test. I prefer a wooden spoon, but a metal spoon can also work. After 8-10 minutes, stir the mixture with a wooden spoon. Lift it out of the sauce pan. It should coat the spoon. Next, run your finger down the the spoon through the mixture. If that finger mark stays without the mixture running, you’re done. It should look like a little finger line parting the ice cream sea.
Churning the Ice Cream
All that is left here is cooling the ice cream base and then churning. Make sure to strain your coffee beans before pouring base into the mixture. While the ice cream churns, melt your chocolate. We pour melted chocolate into the ice cream as it churns to create a stracciatella – very thin chocolate flakes for texture and chocolateyness. You’ll want to eat it as soon as it’s done churning, but I suggest waiting overnight until it is perfect consistency.
When you make this Homemade Coffee Chip Ice Cream, please let me know in the comments or on Instagram @quartersoulcrisis
Homemade Coffee Chip Ice Cream
Equipment
- ice cream maker
- fine mesh sieve
Ingredients
- 1 & 1/2 cup whole milk
- 1 & 1/2 cup coffee beans decaf if you'd like
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 pinch salt
- 5 egg yolks
- 1 & 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 1 tbs cocoa powder
- 1.5 tbs instant coffee if you can't find decaf, this shouldn't be near enough caffeine for it to matter!
- 1/2 cup semi sweet chocolate
- 1.5 tbsp coconut oil
Instructions
- First make sure your ice cream maker is cold/the canister is frozen.
- Warm the Milk: In a sauce pan, add 1 & 1/2 cups whole milk, 1 & 1/2 cups coffee beans, pinch salt, & 1 cup sugar. Stir. Heat on low for about 10 minutes, stirring often. We are heating the milk until the sugar is dissolved & the milk is steaming and heated through. You should still be able to touch your finger to it without it burning
- Make Second Half of Base: In a medium bowl, add 5 egg yolks & whisk them for about 30 seconds. Slowly pour about 1/3 of the milk mixture into the egg yolks, whisking vigorously. Pour that mixture back into the milk mixture & whisk. Strain out your coffee beans using a fine mesh sieve or colander. Do not discard coffee beans. Pour the milk mixture back into the saucepan without coffee beans & return to heat. Whisk in 1tbs cocoa powder & 1.5 tbs instant coffee. In a large bowl, add heavy cream and the coffee beans. Set aside.
- Thicken the milk & egg mixture. Keep saucepan with milk & egg mixture on medium heat until it slightly thickens and just barely coats the back of a spoon (or reaches 170°). This should take about 10 minutes. Keep an eye on it the entire time & stir and whisk often so that eggs do not cook or curdle. Once mixture reaches 170°, strain it through the fine mesh sieve into the heavy cream and coffee beans. Whisk to combine & let everything sit and steep until it comes to room temp or is completely cool. To quicken the process, fill another larger bowl with ice and nestle the bowl with the ice cream base into it. And yes, keep coffee beans steeping
- Churn your ice cream following your ice cream maker instructrions. While ice cream cools, make chocolate by melting 1/4 cup semi sweet chocolate and 2.5 tsp coconut oil. When ice cream has 5 minutes left to churn, pour melted chocolate into ice cream while it churns. It swill begin to freeze and form thin chips.
- Eat right out of the churner for a soft serve texture, but for best results, freeze overnight.
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