This week the Sunday Slow Scoopers made an ice cream that was a nice follow-up to last week's Panforte ice cream. The final product was delicately flavoured with cinnamon (more so if you really broke those cinnamon sticks into small pieces). The recipe is found on p. 38 of David Lebovitz incredible ice cream book the Perfect Scoop. Kim selected this recipe and I am quite glad that she did - once again it forced me to try something I wouldn't have made and I'm glad that I did! Now if only I have the same experience with the roquefort-honey ice cream that Palma selected for NEXT week!
Lebovitz points out that the flavour will be more spicy and complex than you would get from using ground cinnamon. We found the flavour to be subtle but delicious. When making this be sure to use the freshest cinnamon sticks you can find and not the ones that have been sitting at the back of your spice cupboard since last Christmas!
This ice cream went quite well with the apple crumble pie I made last Sunday. In my mind there are few flavour combinations as perfect as apples and cinnamon! One thing that surprised me about this ice cream was that the colour didn't change - as you can see in the picture below (BTW - those a recrumbs from the apple crumble pie on top not some sort of add-in). When I have had cinnamon ice cream in the past the colour was always a soft rusty brown - the colour of cinnamon.
Having thought about taste combinations some more - I bet that this would be amazing sandwiched between two gingersnap cookies for an amazing adult ice cream sandwich.
Hmmm . . . I may have to bake some gingersnaps now . . .
Cinnamon Ice Cream
1 cup whole milk
3/4 cup granulated sugar
pinch of sea salt
10 3-inch cinnamon sticks, broken up
2 cups heavy cream
5 large egg yolksWarm the milk, sugar, salt, cinnamon, and one cup of heavy cream in a medium saucepan. Once warmed, remove from heat, cover, and let steep at room temperature for 1 hour.
Re-warm the cinnamon infused milk mixture. Remove the cinnamon sticks with a slotted spoon and discard them.
Pour the remaining cream into a large bowl and set a mesh strainer on top.
In a separate bow, whisk together the egg yolks. Slowly pour the warmed milk mixture into the egg yolks, whisking constantly so that you do not scramble them. Scrape the milk-egg yolk mixture back into the saucepan. Place over medium heat.
Stir the mixture constantly with a heatproof spatula, scraping the bottom as you stir, until the mixture thickens and coats the back of the spatula. Pour the custard through the strainer into the bowl with the remaining cream.
Stir until cool over an ice bath.
Chill the mixture thoroughly in the refrigerator.
Freeze in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions.
You can check out the creations of the other Sunday Slow Scoopers (well. at least those of 'em who have blogs and aren't traveling - lucky them!) here:
Jerry, your pie looks yummy.
Posted by: Deborah | September 21, 2008 at 02:43 PM
It was a great pie Deborah. I'll post the recipe shortly!
Posted by: Jerry | September 23, 2008 at 09:15 AM
Oh my, the thought of this sandwiched between gingersnaps is really a good one.
Posted by: Krista | September 24, 2008 at 12:19 PM
Krista - i've saved soem of the ice cream fro when I next make gingersnaps - hopefully this weekend. I'll let you know how it goes.
Posted by: Jerry | September 26, 2008 at 05:57 AM