THE RELUCTANT GOURMET COOKING COMMUNITY

[dnelson]

Here is one I did for a client the other night. Big Hit!!!


Crème Brûlée Ice Cream

Ingredients:

1-1/2 cups whole milk
1-1/2 cups heavy cream
1 whole vanilla bean
2 eggs
3 egg yolks
1 cup Brûlée Sugar, divided (recipe follows)

Preparation:

Place the milk and heavy cream in a four quart saucepan. Cut the vanilla bean lengthwise and scrape out the seeds with the blunt end of your knife. Add the seeds and bean pod to the cream mix and bring to a slow boil. Reduce heat and steep (simmer) for about 30 minutes. Stir from time to time.

Using a hand mixer, blend the eggs and 3/4 cup of the Brûlée Sugar together with a hand mixer for a minute or two until it is thick and smooth.

When the time is up on the cream in the saucepan, remove it from the stove and pour it through a strainer into a clean saucepan. Using a 1 cup measure, remove a cup of the strained cream and slowly add it to the egg and sugar mixture while beating with the hand held blender. This tempers the eggs.

Now add the tempered eggs to the cream mixture and blend quickly and thoroughly. Return the mix to the stove and heat over medium heat. DO NOT STRAY. Stir constantly until mixture will coat the back of a spoon. This will take a little time but will go quickly towards the end. Stay focused or you will have to repeat. NOTE: Use one of those whisks that get into the corners of your pot or you’ll find curdled custard there and you do not want that texture in your ice cream.

Once the custard is to the correct stage, remove it to a chilled bowl. (Have that ready) and cover the custard with a piece of plastic wrap to prevent a skin from forming. Chill for several hours until completely chilled.

While the mix is chilling, put the remaining 1/4 cup of Brûlée Sugar in a disposable tin pie pan in small batches and torch it until it caramelizes and allow to cool. Sift through the caramelized pieces and remove them as they become crisp and browned. These will go into the ice cream at the last minute before freezing after using the ice cream maker. You should end up with about 4 tablespoons of crispy brown bits of “Brûlée”

Follow the directions on your Ice cream maker. Mine takes about 25 minutes. Add the Brûlée bits at the very end and blend, then freeze the whole batch in your freezer. Soften a bit before serving. Most enjoyable!

Brûlée Sugar

1 cup light brown sugar, firmly packed
1 cup granulated sugar

Preparation:

Spread the brown sugar on a parchment lined jelly roll pan. Place in an oven preheated to 200 degrees F. for at least 60 minutes or until it becomes very crisp and crumbly. Remove and allow to cool completely to room temperature. If not thoroughly dry…allow to sit out over night. The goal is to remove all moisture from the brown sugar.

Put chunks of the dried sugar through a fine strainer until as much as possible has been sieved. Think brown sugar dust!!! Combine the sieved brown sugar with the granulated sugar and store in an airtight container. It will not spoil. You can use it in many applications.

[Reluctant Gourmet]

This looks incredible as always Chef Nelson. Thanks for posting it.
RG

[jamiescot]

You never run out of great ideas to create wonderful recipes. I hope your ice cream can be bought on local stores but I am sure they are too special to be sold ordinarily. I hope I can coax my wife to do your special ice cream, the ingredients are simple but the procedure needs patience and love. Manitowoc Ice Machine