After a long hiatus I return. More often than not, you are likely to find me using Twitter. You can see my tweets here or follow me.
The 5th Annual Slow Food Atlanta Ice Cream Social was last weekend, and as you can guess, yours truly was a competitor. This was the toughest year yet. Nationally recognized restaurants like Miller Union and Top Chef Master Hugh Atchinson's 5 & 10were there. Of course, both of them won with virtually identical recipes for corn ice cream with blueberry compote. They both were really good. Laurent Tourondel's BLT Steak Atlanta also won for their rhubarb and strawberry ice cream (more rhubarb than strawberry and so refreshing). One amateur also got an award. She won for Lemon Basil Chocolate Chip.
Apparently, I decided not to make all the winning flavors this year. My original ice cream flavor was corn. I was inspired by 5 & 10's corn soup. I couldn't get it right. I also tried to do a caramel corn flavor that didn't work either. The corn flavor was too intense. From talking to both Miller Union and 5 & 10, I picked up some pointers on how to incorporate corn into the ice cream. I will try it again soon and post the recipe.
The other flavor I was considering was lemon verbena chocolate chip. Not quite lemon basil, but close. I happen to have a huge lemon verbena plant in my garden that has yet to be used.
The flavor I chose was Thai Iced Tea Ice Cream. If you have ever had Thai iced tea, then you know why this would make a great ice cream. It tastes like tea, but is served with cream and is sweetened. There is an earthy flavor that cannot compare to traditional tea. It also has some star anise in it. Bonnie Heath took photos of the event for Slow Food Atlanta. She is the owner of that awesome picture of my ice cream at the top of this post. Click this link to find all of the Ice Cream Social pictures as well as Bonnie's other work on her Flickr site.
My recipe is very easy and you will love the flavor. It really is very good, but you have to be able find loose Thai iced tea. You can find Thai tea at an Asian supermarket or online.
I paired this ice cream with salted caramel sauce. This caramel is slightly unusual because of the addition of sour cream. I won't post the recipe because it is poached directly out of the Baked cookbook. It is the recipe for the Chocolate Caramel cake.
Thai Iced Tea Ice Cream:
60 grams of Thai Iced Tea (roughly 10 tablespoons)
2 cups heavy cream
2 cups whole milk
5 egg yolks
1 whole egg
1 cup of sugar
pinch of salt
- Put the cream, milk, and 3/4 cup of sugar in a medium saucepan and heat to about 140 degrees Fahrenheit. Turn off the heat add tea and steep for 10 minutes.
- Beat the remaining sugar in a bowl with the egg yolks and whole egg and salt.
- Return the tea to the heat and temper the eggs. Then add the eggs into the milk/cream mixture. Stir constantly until the temperature reaches 175 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Strain the mixture through a fine mesh sieve. You will not get all of the tea out, but that is okay.
- Cool over a water bath to room temperature.
- Set aside in the refrigerator overnight.
- Freeze in your ice cream machine. Serve with caramel sauce.
