Christmas Cookies & Cream Ice Cream

Dec 24, 2013

Christmas Cookies & Cream Ice Cream – Candy Coated Culinista

Now that I have made a sorbet and ice cream from a recipe, I feel sufficiently confident to make some ice cream from scratch. I am taking the knowledge I learned from my Mango Sorbet and Salted Caramel Ice Cream and making my Christmas cookies & cream ice cream.

Yield/Serving: 4 cups (about 1000 ml)
Prep Time: 10 min
Difficulty level is: Medium
Shelf Life: 1 week
Cook Time: See your manufacturer’s instructions
Chilling Time: 2 hrs, or overnight

Ingredients
• 1 cup milk
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• Pinch salt
• 6 large egg yolks
• 2 cups heavy whipping cream
• 1 teaspoon peppermint extract
• 1 cup candy cane sandwich cookies, crushed
• 1/2 cup crushed candy canes

Assembly
1. Combine milk, sugar and salt in saucepan over medium-high heat.
2. Stirring until the sugar is dissolved and texture is smooth.
3. Whish together the egg yolks in a large bowl.
4. Add the hot milk mixture to the egg yolks, pouring in a constant stream while whisking.
5. Pour this mixture back into the saucepan and set over medium-high heat until it has thickened and coats the back of a spoon, 3 minutes.
6. Strain the base into a large bowl and mix in the cream and extract.
7. Set the bowl into an ice water bath and stir until the base becomes cool.
8. Remove the bowl from the ice bath and cover with plastic wrap and let chill completely for at least 2 hours.
9. Freeze in the ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions.
10. Add the cookies and candy canes pieces during the last 5 minutes of the churching process.
11. Transfer to a chilled container and freeze until ice cream firms up before serving.

Tips
• Place cookies in a sandwich bag and the candy canes in another sandwich bag and crush with a rolling pin until the sizes desired are achieved.
• The custard will look a little eggy but don’t fear it will turn out well. I saw mine and was thinking about getting 6 more eggs and starting again, but I said to continue on.

Please Enjoy

My thoughts
Once again when I come “off recipe” is when I make my best creations. I learn what I can from other recipes and use that knowledge to create my own recipe. The moment I put this mixture into the ice cream maker I stepped away for 10 minutes and when I returned this was already looking like proper ice cream. The salted caramel I made didn’t even look like this so fast into the mixing process. After the 30 minutes or so I took a quick taste before I added the candy and cookies and it tasted amazing. The peppermint was strong and I was contemplating to add the remaining ingredients and potentially ruin this amazing recipe. I decided to continue and once the remaining ingredients were added I did one final taste test and the candy danced on my tongue. Mr. C. immediately said “this tastes much better than the other ice cream”. It is rich and creamy and this will be my base recipe from now on. For a person who prefers slushies, smoothies and sorbet to ice cream 100% of the time; I think I have been swayed. I look forward to making really amazing a delicious homemade ice cream in 2014.