Time for Ice Cream!
It’s mid-May and the weather is slowly starting to get warmer here in America and the UK. I think that it is a simple fact that when the sun comes out, we all start to crave ice cream. Vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, rocky road, mint chocolate chip, the list goes on and on. Or perhaps you prefer a more niche flavor, like pistachio. I’ve even had corn and charcoal ice cream in China, and both were absolutely delicious! Whichever flavor you like, I’m sure you can agree that sunshine equals time for ice cream! That’s why today, we are posting our recipe for cardamom ice cream, one of the most delicious and refreshing flavors we have ever had.
Cardamom and Scandinavia
Now, you may be wondering: why cardamom? Well, the truth is that a lot of Scandinavian baked goods use cardamom. For example, Danish fødselsdagsboller (birthday rolls), Swedish semlor (Lenten buns), and Norwegian hjertevafler (heart-shaped waffles). But why is there so much cardamom, a spice native to India, in Scandinavian baked goods? Well, that history goes all the way back to the Vikings. The Vikings apparently found cardamom in Constantinople when they traded with the Byzantine Empire, and brought it back to Scandinavia. And here we are a thousand years later, still using recipes that incorporate cardamom, which is pretty cool!
Today’s Recipe
That brings us to today’s recipe. This ice cream is so rich and creamy, with an amazing sharp flavor of fragrant cardamom throughout, which blends perfectly with the underlying vanilla flavor. We use fresh cardamom pods to infuse the cream and milk base of the ice cream with that amazing spiciness, and then add a bit of ground cardamom just to give the ice cream some visible specks. First, you make a custard, and then, once your custard has cooled, you churn this in an ice cream maker. We have tried using both an actual ice cream maker* and an ice cream maker attachment for our stand mixer*, which is a great investment if you really love ice cream! Anyway, please try this out, and let us know in the comments how it goes!
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Cardamom Ice Cream
Ingredients
- 2 large egg yolks
- 1 large egg
- 360 ml (1 1/2 cups) heavy cream
- 240 ml (1 cup) milk
- 160 grams (3/4 cup + 1 tbsp) granulated sugar
- Pinch of salt
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 10-15 whole cardamom pods
- Dash of ground cardamom (optional)
Instructions
- If using an ice cream machine, make sure you are following the machine instructions and freezing the cooling bowl for at least 12 hours before preparing your ice cream! The bowl has to be completely frozen for the ice cream to properly churn.
- Start by steeping the milk with the cardamom pods – heat up 1 cup of milk on the stove in a small pan with the cardamom pods until you see small bubbles forming along the edge. Turn off the heat, cover, and let it sit for about 45 minutes. Once that time has passed, strain out the pods.
- Now it's time to make the custard. Mix heavy cream, steeped cardamom milk, sugar, and a pinch of salt in a small saucepan.
- Whisk egg yolks and the whole egg and vanilla together in a separate heatproof bowl.
- Heat up the milk & cream mixture until you see small bubbles forming along the edge. Make sure not to overheat! We recommend keeping this on low/medium-low heat.
- Slowly stream half of the milk mixture into the eggs to temper the eggs, whisking constantly. Add the egg mixture back into the saucepan with the rest of the milk mixture, still whisking. Heat this over medium to low heat until it for a few minutes, whisking the whole time to avoid scrambling the eggs.
- Once the mixture coats the back of a spoon and you can run a finger across the spoon and it leaves a trail, the custard is ready. You can also check the temperature of the custard – once it reaches 170 degrees F, it is ready!
- Strain the custard into a bowl. We like to strain it just incase there are any pieces of egg that didn't get tempered!
- At this stage, we like to add a dash of ground cardamom just to give it some additional cardamom flavor and so that you can see little specks in the ice cream!
- Cover with plastic wrap that touches the surface of the custard to avoid a skin forming, and refrigerate until cold. It's very important that it's as cold as the fridge, so that it doesn't thaw out the ice cream bowl too quickly.
- When the custard is totally cooled down (fridge temperature!), start your ice cream machine and add the mixture to the cooling bowl (follow your machine instructions!).
- Our ice cream took about 25-30 minutes to churn to soft serve consistency, which is what our machine says to do.
- Once the ice cream is ready, transfer to a freezer safe container and store in the freezer.
- Let the ice cream harden for another couple of hours before scooping! Enjoy!
