Ginger Earl Grey Ice Cream

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A bag of organic earl grey tea greeted me when I peeked into my weekly organic delivery bag. Scribbled on the invoice – complimentary. Three weeks later, it still stayed motionless on the same spot as the larder was packed to full brim with green tea, chamomile, peppermint, rooibos and more. It didn’t deserve to go to waste.

Ice cream is one of those little luxuries which are best home made and they taste amazing when the best ingredients are used. Rich, luscious and sweet all melts coldly into one warm mouthful. It happens to be one of the easiest sinful dessert to make. To curb the problem of television and a tub of ice cream combined, I always make only small quantities to limit the potential physic-altering damage.

Ginger Earl Grey Ice Cream

5 egg yolks
300ml milk
200ml pure cream
180g brown sugar
10 bags earl grey tea
1 stem ginger, bruised and battered

Heat milk and cream in saucepan over low fire and infuse with teabags and bruised ginger for 10 minutes. Whisk egg yolks with brown sugar till light, ensuring the sugar melts. Carefully pour the infused cream mixture into the egg mixture while continually whisking. This is to prevent the warm cream from cooking the egg yolks.

Heat the combined mixture in a saucepan over low heat again, stirring continuously. Keep observing its texture. Once it becomes thick enough to coat the back of the spoon, remove immediately from heat and submerge half the saucepan into an ice bath. Keep stirring, allowing the mixture to cool down gradually.

When it has cooled down, pour mixture into ice-cream maker to churn for 30 minutes. After freezing, serve it with chopped bitter chocolate. Or if you are impatient like me, eat it straightaway soft serve style with chopped fine bitter chocolates from Café-Tasse.

My ice-cream maker has an uncovered portion on its cover and I usually seal it with clingwrap as I find that with less air churned, the texture of ice cream becomes more fine.