Coffee Ice Cream with Chocolate-Covered Espresso Beans

I was (pleasantly) surprised to hear so many votes for coffee ice cream when we asked what your favorite flavor was. So, I figured I’d better include it in the recipes this month. This was my first time making coffee ice cream, and it seemed a bit boring with just the coffee flavor, so I decided to add in some chopped up chocolate covered espresso beans. It was a great idea, if I do say so myself. But just be warned that it has a definite caffeine kick!
Coffee Ice Cream with Chocolate Covered Espresso Beans
makes 1 quart
Ingredients:
2 cups whole milk
1 1/4 cups heavy cream
4 tablespoons cornstarch
3 tablespoons cream cheese, at room temperature
2/3 cup sugar
a pinch of kosher salt
1/4 cup coffee beans
1/4 cup chocolate covered espresso beans, chopped
Directions:
- Measure out 2 cups of whole milk, and reserve 2 tablespoons of the milk in a smaller prep bowl. Combine the rest of the milk, heavy cream, and sugar in a medium saucepan. Heat over medium high heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Bring just to a boil, then remove from heat.
- Grind the coffee beans coarsely. (You want to be able to strain them out easily.) Add the ground beans to the milk mixture once you’ve removed it from the heat.  Cover and let steep for 25 minutes.
- Strain out the coffee grounds using a fine mesh sieve lined with cheese cloth or a coffee filter. (It might take more than one round of straining to remove all the grounds.) Return the milk mixture to the saucepan.
- Take the 2 tablespoons of milk you set aside originally, and whisk in the cornstarch to create a slurry. Then slowly whisk the slurry into the milk mixture.
- Return saucepan to the heat and bring to a boil. Let boil for approximately 1 minute, until the cornstarch begins to thicken the mixture. Remove from heat.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the cream cheese and salt until incorporated. Pour the hot milk mixture into the bowl with the cream cheese. Whisk together until fully combined. Cover and chill in the refrigerator until completely cool.
- While the milk mixture is chilling, chop the espresso beans, then store in the freezer.
- Once chilled, freeze the base in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions. About 5 minutes before the ice cream maker is done, add in the chopped espresso beans.  You will still want to stir the ice cream to make sure the pieces are fully mixed before freezing. Transfer to an airtight container and freeze for an additional 2 hours.
Okay, now the best part: photos! I’ve left out the photos for combining the cream cheese, etc. since those are similar to photos from other posts.

You can use any kind of coffee you like. I had French Roast from Whole Foods, so that’s what I used.

Bringing it all to a boil.

Add the coffee grounds.

Stir the coffee grounds to incorporate them, then cover and let them steep in the milk.
I don’t have photos of the straining—it was a messy process and I wanted to keep the camera far away.

Here’s what it should look like after you’ve strained out the coffee. You’ll want to whisk in the cornstarch slurry, reheat, and whisk into the cream cheese. Then put it in the fridge to chill.

The espresso beans don’t need to be uniform pieces. And chopping room temperature beans is much easier than chopping frozen beans. Store them in the freezer after you’ve chopped them up.

And here it is once it’s been through the ice cream maker and chilled in the freezer.
I chose espresso beans, but the potential for mix-ins are endless. What would you add to your coffee ice cream?

 (via: https://plus.google.com/sparks/interests/coffee) by:  Kristin Appenbrink