Earl Grey Ice Cream

It was very wet in Sydney this weekend.  I combatted the bleak weather by wearing red lipstick and gumboots, and making an ice cream designed especially for rainy days.

Earl Grey Ice Cream (adapted from David Lebovitz)

1 cup (250 ml) whole milk
2 cups (500 ml) heavy cream
2/3 cup of sugar
1/4 cup French Earl Grey tea leaves
5 large egg yolks

Warm tea leaves, milk, half the cream and sugar in a medium saucepan. Cover and set aside to steep for 1 hour.

Rewarm the tea-infused milk.  Pour the remaining cup of cream into a large bowl and set a mesh strainer on top. In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the egg yolks.  Slowly pour the warm mixture into the egg yolks, whisking constantly, then scrape the warmed egg yolks back into the saucepan.  Stir the mixture constantly over medium heat with a heatproof spatula, scraping the bottom as you stir, until the mixture thickens and coats the spatula.  Pour the custard through the strainer into the cream, pressing gently on the tea leaves toextract the maximum flavor from them, then discard the leaves.

Chill and then churn in an ice cream maker for 30 minutes.

balsamic strawberry ice cream

I hosted the party to end all parties in my wee house on the weekend. There were ice cream flavours a plenty: chilli chocolate, cinnamon, thai basil, white chocolate sorbet, and plum sorbet with grand marnier were my favourites.

And just as I think I don’t have it in me to make ice cream ever again, I find two almost too ripe punnets of leftover strawberries in the fridge.

The thought of a complex ice cream recipe with multiple steps and straining, and chilling etc was daunting, but then I found a recipe for Balsamic Strawberry Ice Cream in Stephanie Alexander’s A Cook’s Companion. Even as I was reading the recipe I could taste the tart caramel of the balsamic vinegar and the sweetness of the strawberries. So fresh and delicious, and so simple.

Easy Balsamic Vinegar and Strawberry Ice Cream (ratios significantly modified from the orginal recipe)

Wash, hull and quarter 1 1/2 punnets of ripe strawberries. Macerate strawberries in 1/4 cup of balsamic vinegar for 20 minutes. Whizz strawberries and vinegar with 1/4 cup of pure icing sugar using an immersion blender. Chill this vinegar-strawberry-sugar mixture in the fridge for at least one hour. Whip 1 1/2 cups of cream and then fold through the strawberry mixture and churn in an ice cream maker for 20 minutes.

This black pepper panna cotta with balsamic strawberries looks amazing too.