Cinnamon ice cream bedazzles -recipe

Cinnamon ice cream

Cinnamon ice cream

Published Oct 7, 2015

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Cradock - Cold intensifies flavour, but so does heat.

A little warmth brings a glow into a life, like the embers in a winter fireplace late in the evening, with the cup of Milo or Horlicks to hand. Or, in my case, most likely a snifter of whisky or brandy.

Like a teabag dropped in a cup of boiled water, after a couple of minutes the plain water has become the most refreshing hot drink there is.

The aficionados balk if you put ice in your brandy or whisky, but tell that to Kobus with his brandy and Coke and his eye on the rugby, He’ll give you a frown that speaks volumes about the pretentious d**s he takes you for, and give you a running snotklap if you try to switch channels. “Um, would you mind if we watched the Antiques Road Show” would not go down well right now. Nor would, “So, I hear Japan is doing well in the World Cup?”

But the aficionados are right, and the brandy goblet is designed for just that. Hold the bowl of it in the palm of your hand, fingers encasing the short stem, and your body temperature warms the liquor and releases more flavour. Sniff the glass and you get a heady hit of warm, luscious nectar.

Brandy, perhaps more than any other spirit, is redolent of spice. You can detect essences of spices from mace to cinnamon to aniseed to ginger if you put your mind to the nuances swirling in that goblet.

Those apparent spices, along with a deep fruitiness from the grapes that started it all, seem to multiply in intensity when the brandy is warmed a little.

All of which is a meandering way of leading to the more defined, or perhaps refined, topic of infusion. During the brandy-making process those apparent spicy flavours and scents happen by some kind of chemical magic. But in the kitchen, we can make a little magic of our own in the pot.

I was thinking about this while making a litre of cinnamon ice cream the other day. This is something I rarely do, but special friends were coming round and when that happens I try to spoil them.

It’s a recipe I found via David Lebovitz, one of the food bloggers I respect the most, and adapted slightly. I use even more cinnamon sticks than his recipe calls for because he elects to bash them up before steeping them in the warmed milk, whereas I prefer to keep them whole. I just don’t like the idea of tiny bits of cinnamon bark remaining in the finished product.

The process involves infusing cinnamon sticks in warmed milk and cream, the intention being to draw as much cinnamon flavour as possible out of the bark and into the sauce, and consequently into the ice cream it is on its way to becoming.

An hour or more of the cinnamon sticks infusing the milky sauce does wonders. The cinnamon flavour is not so strong that it’s overpowering, but it’s discernible.

 

Cinnamon Ice Cream

250ml full cream milk

150g castor sugar

12 whole cinnamon sticks

500ml cream

Yolks of 5 jumbo eggs

1/2 tsp salt

Place the cinnamon sticks in a saucepan with the milk, sugar, salt and half of the cream.

Bring to a gentle simmer, then remove it from the heat and let the cinnamon sticks steep in the warmed dairy blend for the flavours to infuse.

After an hour (or longer), bring the mixture back to a gentle heat (don’t boil it) and remove the cinnamon sticks. Discard them.

Half fill a large bowl with ice and cold water. Place a medium-sized stainless steel bowl in this. Pour the remaining fresh cream into the smaller bowl and place a fine sieve on top.

In another bowl, whisk the egg yolks, then add a little of the warmed milk to it at a time, whisking all the while, as you would when making a custard.

Stir this into the saucepan containing the warmed milk, and cook on a moderate heat, stirring constantly and scraping the bottom, until the custard has thickened. It shouldn’t bubble too briskly.

Pour this custard through the sieve into the bowl beneath it, then stir until the custard has cooled. If the water is well chilled, this will happen surprisingly quickly.

Chill ice cream custard in fridge until ice cold, then freeze in metal or plastic container until wholly frozen, at least five hours.

Remove from fridge about half an hour before serving, as it sets very hard. Once it softens it makes a gorgeously creamy and subtly spiced ice cream. It’s perfect with a slice of apple crumble or just a couple of scoops on its own.

Weekend Argus

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