velvety homemade coffee ice cream [porter]

It's officially summer, but you don't need any kind of solstice to tell you that here in Texas!  100 degree temperatures have become a mainstay.  I always have ice cream in the freezer, and summer is the perfect excuse to take the effort to make my own.  I took a Central Market class on cheeses several months ago and was introduced to Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams recipe for goat cheese ice cream with roasted red cherries.  The magic things about the base for this ice cream is 1) it is egg-less so you don't have to worry about accidentally cooking the egg while tempering in the custard-style base and 2) it uses corn starch as a stabilizer and cream cheese as a thickener, which means this all natural ice cream has a lovely, rich creamy texture that doesn't get icy in the freezer.

Though this goat cheese ice cream recipe is definitely worth making (and I have many a time), I wanted to get creative and use this base to make another flavor.  Shying away from a possibly complicated mint chocolate chip for my first made-up recipe, I thought coffee ice cream would be a somewhat safe and delicious application.  This recipe turned out very well and I had a small scoop for breakfast the next morning because I couldn't wait any longer!  Who says you can't have ice cream for breakfast??

Ingredients:
Makes a generous 2 quarts
2 cups whole milk
4 tsp corn starch
1 1/4 cups heavy whipping cream
3/4 cups sugar
1/4 cup light corn syrup (Caro syrup)
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 cup espresso grounds (freshly ground is better but not required)
3 tbsp cream cheese (1.5 oz) - slightly softened (~10-20 sec in microwave)
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chunks optional (I used Nestle)
Large bowl of ice and a large baggie

The how to:
In a small bowl, mix 1/4 cup of the milk with the corn starch and set aside. In a 4 quart pot, combine remaining milk, cream, sugar, corn syrup and salt.  Bring mixture to a boil and then remove from heat.  Add espresso grounds to the pot and let it brew for 5 minutes.  If you haven't done so already, you can use this time to place the cream cheese in a medium bowl and soften it.  After 5 minutes, strain out the coffee grounds using a fine mesh strainer or cheesecloth.  I don't have a fine strainer so I used a spatula and some patience to skim as much coffee grounds off the top as I could (the coffee grounds float for the most part).  Place the pot back on the burner over medium heat and add in the cornstarch/milk mixture (it might need a fresh stir to pour well).  Bring the pot to a ever so slight boil and stir for one minute.  Remove from heat and pour about a cup of the warm mixture into the cream cheese bowl and stir well, and then add the cream cheese mixture back into the large pot to fully incorporate.
     Chill the ice cream in the bowl of ice for 30 minutes by either pouring the mixture into a plastic baggie and submerging in ice or if you are lucky like I was, placing the pot in the ice bowl directly if the ice bowl is big enough (this may not be good for your pot if it has a lining -- mine is just plain metal).  Once chilled, pour into your ice cream maker and churn until it sticks thickly on a spatula.  I pause every 10 minutes or so and scrape down the sides, but this probably isn't necessary.  Also, add the chocolate chunks after about 10 minutes once the ice cream has set up a bit.  Spoon ice cream into a 2-quart freezer safe container.  Place wax paper flat to the top of the ice cream (this helps to prevent ice crystals) and place the lid on the container.  Freeze for 4 hours to set.  Remember to devour any remaining soft serve left in your ice cream maker.  Enjoy!!

Side notes:
For a lighter option, use sugar substitute (follow directions on package for replacing sugar) and agave nectar in place of corn syrup.  I strongly suggest fresh grounds to get a full coffee flavor because the natural oils diminish over time once ground.  I used the bulk aisle at my grocery store to freshly grind about a 1/4 cup of bold Nicaraguan coffee using the espresso setting for half and the Turkish coffee setting for the other half (the Turkish setting grinds it so small that you add it directly to hot water without straining - I did this so I could purposefully leave behind some grounds in my ice cream).  Warning: use decaf if you usually have ice cream after dinner!  In the future I will experiment mixing flavors with this coffee ice cream such as vanilla coffee, hazelnut coffee, coconut coffee, and almond coffee (maybe with toffee bits!).

If you are interested in the science behind ice cream, check out how stuff works.

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