Coffee Ice Cream

What triggered this post was a couple of things, first was Annapet's Mocharon guest post, I've been craving coffee ice cream ever since. Second was my Lemondrop Melon Limonana Sorbet which brought to mind, although universal, an Israeli cafe past time, chilled coffee or milk poured over a few scoops of vanilla or coffee ice cream, and whipped cream. Served in a tall clear glass with a handle and a straw in it!
Stubborn me reminiscent of old times even used an Israeli instant coffee and made coffee gelato (no cream), it was a flop. Cheap coffee, sentimental memories or not, does not translate well into sublime coffee flavored ice cream, but I tried. Next, while googling, first search result kept coming up was Simply Recipes', David Lebovitz's The Perfect Scoop Coffee Ice Cream. What intrigued me the most about it, is the steeping of whole coffee beans in milk and cream to extract the coffee flavor. A brilliant method! While I have a hard time following a recipe, I did follow this one, well, for the most part, and dang, the ice cream came out as ice cream should!
The coffee beans, our neighbor's gift to us over a year ago, often made me feel guilty as I opened the freezer seeing it tucked away in a corner. Robust, 100% Kona, grade AAA Extra Fancy. Caffeineated, 'city roast', a very dark roast, almost like an espresso according to my neighbor. Sold out of Mele Estate Coffee in Hawaii, a boutique coffee estate her parents own. Distributed mostly wholesale but available and marketed directly only in small quantaties.I got all this information while calling next door to ask if I can mention it.
I just churned the chilled base this morning and boy as much as I try to avoid cream in ice cream (an oxymoron right?!) I now know why it must be added to achieve the perfect consistency. I even upped my usual four eggs yolks max, size large, to five as asked in the recipe. The 3/4 cup sugar is spot on in this coffee recipe even though I normally use 1/2 cup sugar in many of my ice cream, sorbet and gelato bases. Since the coffee is full bodied I decided to let its flavors shine. I didn't add the extra 1/4 teaspoon finely ground coffee asked for in the recipe, I just let the coffee beans steep for an extra couple of hours longer in the milk/cream mixture in the fridge. Coffee beans vary, so taste/test for flavor and color at the one hour, two hour marks to see if desired flavor/color were achieved, and only then continue steeping up to three hours max. I also didn't add the salt and the vanilla and used whipping cream instead of heavy cream. Whipping cream just registers with me as volume, fluff, maybe will make the ice cream more airy, but it's just me. The rest I followed the recipe. I've been good, sort of! :).

You can find the link to Simple Recipes' coffee ice cream post and recipe here.  Perfect for this coming 4th of July weekend fireworks!

Related posts:

Pineapple Sorbet
Mango Sorbet
Fig Gelato - two ways!
Creamy Cran-Raspberry Sherbet
Chocolate Pudding (base for chocolate ice cream)

29 comments:

  1. Coffee Ice Cream is my all time favorite! I might even (gasp!) give up mangoes for it. Seriously, your ice cream looks amazing and I love steeping beans in the cream for more flavor. Because...I love the word steeping ;)

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  2. Coffee ice cream is my favorite, it's hard to find where I live, but I've yet to make it. Your photo has me drooling, YUM!

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  3. Coffee Ice Cream!!! I could trade anything for it. I feel like coming right over with my spoon. only if you stayed a block away. lol.

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  4. You just reminded me that I made coffee icream a while back and have the images on my hard drive. Maybe I should post it too. Love coffee ice-cream and the ones available in the store are not always too good. Nice one Shulie!

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  5. I so love coffee ice cream... especially when it's a subtle, natural flavor. Plus, with this heat, I think I could eat ice cream for every meal.

    And, btw, it looks like you are LOVING your new lens ;-)

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  6. I wish I wasn't the only one in my house to love coffee ice cream or I would make this today!! I may just make it anyway and let the others wish they did so they could eat ice cream too! =) Were those pics with the new camera? =) awesome!
    @alanecooke

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  7. Amazing! I am on on ice cream making kick lately!

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  8. Licking my lips - hand that glass over! :) I just picked up that book so I'll definitely have to check out his method. Can't wait to try this out. Coffee ice cream and coffee shakes are one of my absolute favs!! Nice job and beautiful pictures :)

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  9. The blasphemy Nellie. Only if coffee and mango flavors would mesh. TY girlie.
    Heather TY yes def. make it yourself!! Let me know how it turns out.
    An, come right over. I wish the same!! & we can make tiramisu together!
    TY Meeta. Can't wait to see your version!! Agree, commercial ones are not always spot on.
    Ahahaha baby boi you can afford ice cream every day. It's so good that I told Jonathan to be careful not to have more than a scoop a day, though he is mighty fine but still. lol & yes getting the hang of the lens:).
    Yes Alan, make them wish they had some. lol & yes new cam.& TY! :)
    Oh cool Leslie can't wait to see what you come up with. thx for dropping by!!
    Hey Rach, preggie lady, let me know how it comes out. i wish I could send you few scoops. I know when I was with my only pregnancy were craving ice cream and steak but not together.:) Thx for stopping by & saying hi.

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  10. You are a lady after my heart ... this post is PURE PLEASURE for the coffee lover in me. Throw in mentions of old times, cities and connects and you'll have me eating out of your hand. What an amazing post and what a delicious treat this is. I think I might have some coffee beans tucked away too, waiting for a day like this. Truly divine!

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  11. love this! This is my favorite type of ice cream ever!

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  12. I LOVE coffee ice cream...beautiful photos Shulie!

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  13. Shulie, thank you for the shout out. Oh, my. I have been lurking and a little shy (all the attention I've been getting) since suddenly people are visiting my sleepy blog.

    Coffee, wow. A grown-up treat. Even the little boy is curious. And of course I promised him that someday he'll most likely love coffee, too.

    Love, love the photos as usual. Thank you for sharing this summer treat.

    I have something in the oven that will go with this =).

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  14. You know I am one of those rare weirdos who doesn't like ice cream! It's not like i don't eat it at all .. but very very rare. This one would be something I would like to try once in a while because of that coffee :) I can almost taste it!

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  15. simply beautiful Shulie... and gorgeous click too :D

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  16. oh my goodness.... i LOVE coffee ice cream. i grew up wanting to eat this all the time. delicious recipe!

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  17. hmmm Coffee ice cream, i love the sound of it, just imaging the taste in my mouth now :P

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  18. looks very delicious ! awesome pictures

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  19. you know i'm all over this, right????? swoon!!!

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  20. TY Deeba, even your comments are poetic!
    Thank you Alison and Winnie. Mine too. Now I got to make tiramisu:).
    Thx Annapet. Funny thing S (almost 19) hates coffee taste, but I was so proud of this batch was slyly pushing it on him, happily my attenpts were complete failures. I really do not want him to develop a taste to drinking coffee though I love it!! More ice cream for J & I:)
    Ahahah Kankana, not weird, at least I got tempted you even if for a bit:) Thx for dropping by.
    Thank you Lisa & Junia, A Spoonfulofyumm & whichdoor I was trying to think back when was the first time I had coffee and I couldn't recall but agree coffee ice cream is an absolute favorite of mine too:)
    Deb, Thx Do it! Do it! :)

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  21. Love the photos. Coffee ice cream is so good!

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  22. Fantastic photos and a wonderful blog! I would love so much to have some space in my freezer and be able to make this coffee ice-cream... It looks luscious and the funny thing is I have already a ready-to-send post with a coffee dessert for Monday... I must be not the only one who thinks coffee desserts are very refreshing :-)
    Thank you for visiting my blog, I am very happy to have found yours!

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  23. This looks absolutely delicious. I need an ice cream maker. Grrr. I should really get on that. Thanks for the motivation. ;)

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  24. I relate to not sticking 100% to recipes as well... thank God they always come up good :) the ice cream looks amazing and while reading your post I swear I could almost smell those coffee beans, we need some sort of "click and sniff" or "click and taste" because reading all these food posts makes me really curious and hungry!

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  25. This coffee ice cream looks absolutely amazing. I definitely have to save this recipe and try it out for myself. Wonderful job

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  26. Okay coffee is my favorite flavor ice cream so your photo has me drooling...

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  27. Can't go wrong with coffee ice cream! Looks great!

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  28. This is brilliant! I have never seen a recipe like this using coffee beans. So curious to try it out myself :)

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  29. Looks brilliant! I have never seen a recipe using coffee beans. I am curious to try this myself.

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