Coffee Ice Cream
A rich custard ice cream infused with coffee beans, chilled for 4 hours, churned and frozen until scoopable.
Photograph credit: Vegan Hazelnut Coffee Ice Cream (5013027435) by Veganbaking.net from USA · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons · this resized copy is shared under the same licence
The first sign of a good coffee ice cream is its colour: a warm, pale tan, like milky coffee. The flavour comes from whole coffee beans steeped in hot cream, an old pastry-chef trick that gives a smooth, round taste without the bitterness of ground coffee. Instant coffee tastes thin by comparison.
Use medium roast beans, lightly crushed to release their oils. Bring the cream and milk to a simmer, stir in the beans, cover the pan and leave for 30 minutes. The beans flavour the liquid as it cools. Strain through a fine sieve, pressing on the beans to extract every drop, and make up any lost volume with a splash of cream.
Temper the yolks slowly. Whisk the yolks and sugar until pale, then pour a ladle of hot cream onto them while whisking, then another, before returning everything to the pan. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly with a spatula, until the custard coats the back of a spoon and reaches 80°C / 176°F. Any hotter and the eggs scramble.
Chill the custard for at least 4 hours, until completely cold, and churn it according to your machine until it looks like soft-serve. Transfer to a container, press baking paper on the surface and freeze for 4 hours until firm. Take it out of the freezer for 10 minutes before scooping.
Questions About Coffee Ice Cream
How long does Coffee Ice Cream take to make?
30 minutes of preparation and 15 minutes of cooking, plus 8 hours 30 minutes of Chilling and freezing, so allow 9 hours 15 minutes from start to finish. The recipe serves 8.
Coffee Ice Cream: Step by Step
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Heat the cream, milk and coffee beans to a simmer. Cover, turn off the heat and steep for 30 minutes. Strain, pressing on the beans.
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Whisk the egg yolks, sugar and salt until pale. Reheat the cream to steaming, then whisk a ladle into the yolks, then a second, and tip back into the pan.
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Cook over low heat, stirring, until the custard coats the back of a spoon and reaches 80°C / 176°F. Stir in the vanilla.
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Strain into a bowl and chill for 4 hours until completely cold.
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Churn in an ice cream machine until thick. Freeze in a lidded container for 4 hours.
Related guide: Prep, cook and total time.
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Tips That Matter
- Steep the beans, do not boil them.
- Cook the custard to 80°C / 176°F and no further.
- Chill the base completely before churning.
What to Serve With It
Chocolate brownies · Biscotti · Espresso · Caramel sauce
Storage
Keeps in the freezer for 2 weeks.
What's in a Serving
Per serving, calculated from the ingredient list with USDA FoodData Central figures (SR Legacy). A calculation, not a laboratory analysis: brands, cuts and how you measure change the real numbers. How the figures are worked out.
Your notes on this recipe
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Compiled by Turab
Checked by script for timings, diet labels and nutrition arithmetic. How the recipes are checked. Found a mistake? Tell us.
First published ; last changed .
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