cold brew ice cream
Ingredients
5-6 cups lactose free half and half (or use heavy cream and whole milk—see note)
3/4 cup course ground dark roast coffee beans (I recommend using decaf!)
6 yolks
2/3 c sugar
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp vanilla
3 tablespoons coffee rum or coffee liqueur
Instructions
Make creamy cold brew
Pour 3 cups of half and half into a large jar or french press. Add ground coffee and mix thoroughly.
Refrigerate for 3 hours, stirring the mixture once every hour.
Strain coffee grounds out of your cold brew. If using a french press, you may still need to use a cheese cloth to remove all of the coffee grounds.
Measure the amount of creamy cold brew you have: it should be a little more than 2 cups. Measure out an equal amount of half and half and set aside.
Make the custard
Prepare an ice bath by filling a large bowl with ice and water. Place a medium mixing bowl fitted with a fine mesh strainer inside the ice bath.
In a small saucepan, add egg yolks, creamy cold brew, half and half, sugar, and salt. Whisk mixture together.
Cook at medium low heat, stirring constantly, until mixture is thick enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon (about 170 F on an instant read thermometer).
Remove custard from heat and immediately pour through a fine mesh strainer into a bowl over the ice bath.
Add vanilla and coffee rum to custard and stir.
Allow custard to cool to room temperature, stirring occasionally.
Cover with a layer of plastic wrap pressed directly over the surface of your custard. Place custard in refrigerator and chill until cold (I leave mine overnight).
Make ice cream according to ice cream machine instructions.
Serve immediately as soft serve ice cream. For a firmer consistency, freeze for a few hours before serving.
Note: if you are using heavy cream and whole milk rather than half and half, I recommend steeping the beans in 3 cups of whole milk. When it is time to make the custard, you’ll measure out your creamy cold brew and add an equivalent amount of heavy cream.
About this recipe
I spend a lot of time thinking about how to make ice cream flavors, but this recipe took up more brain space than most! I wanted to do a coffee flavored ice cream, but what was the best way to get that deep, rich coffee flavor? Water is the enemy of creamy ice cream, so I knew I didn't want to just pour drip coffee into my custard mix. I considered using espresso (I still might try this in the future), but eventually I settled on making cold brew and steeping the coffee beans in milk instead of water. The creamy cold brew that goes into this ice cream steeps for much less time than traditional cold brew because the high fat content of the half and half speeds up the coffee extraction process. Do not leave the beans to sit overnight—you will end up with very bitter ice cream!
I really love this ice cream, and I hope you do too! Check out my Instagram page for a video of me making this recipe.
