Coffee Ice Cream with Brooke

My friend Brooke is awesome.  Really, really, really awesome.  You see, she and her daughter came all the way here, to Texas, to visit us.  Really.  On an airplane (actually two), here to Texas.  That is why she is awesome.  If anyone else would like to earn awesome status, you know what to do.

As a reward for Brooke's awesomeness, we had to have yummy treats and what is yummier than coffee ice cream?  Especially coffee ice cream that you make yourself.  And then eat it, with Thin Mints and whipped cream.  Mmmmm!!!!!

If you like coffee ice cream, this ice cream is excellent.  It had a strong coffee flavor (although that might have been because we allowed the beans to steep in the milk for longer than the recommended hour because we were putting the kids to bed).  It was really delicious.  We also at it with chocolate chip cookies and it was still good then.  We made it with decaf beans, so we would not be up all night.

Here is the recipe, from David Lebovitz:

Ingredients:
1½ cups whole milk
¾ cup sugar
1½ cups whole coffee beans
Pinch of salt
1½ cups heavy cream, divided
5 large egg yolks
¼ tsp. vanilla extract
¼ tsp. finely ground coffee or espresso powder

Directions: 
Combine the milk, sugar, coffee beans, salt and ½ cup of the heavy cream in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat.  Once the mixture is warm and just begins to bubble, remove from the heat and let steep at room temperature for 1 hour.  

After steeping, return the saucepan with the coffee mixture to the burner over medium heat.  Pour the remaining 1 cup heavy cream into a large bowl and set a mesh strainer over the top.  In a separate bowl, whisk the egg yolks until smooth.  Once the coffee mixture has become warm again, slowly pour the mixture into the bowl with the egg yolks, whisking constantly to temper the eggs.  Return the egg-coffee bean mixture to the saucepan over medium high heat. 

Cook the mixture, stirring constantly and scraping the bottom, until the mixture thickens and coats the spatula or spoon (about 170-175° F.)  Pour the custard through the strainer and stir it into the cream.  Press on the coffee beans in the strainer to extract as much of the coffee flavor as possible, then discard the beans (I used a heavy-bottomed drinking glass to do this.)  Mix in the vanilla and ground coffee or espresso powder.  Chill the batter over an ice bath, or in the refrigerator.  Chill thoroughly in the refrigerator and then freeze in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions.