Tea ice cream (Earl Grey)
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Care for some tea ice cream? Earl Grey's classic bergamot-flavour is just right for the job!
Ingredients
  • 7 Earl Grey tea-bags
  • 120 ml (about ½ cup) sugar
  • 5 egg yolks
  • 450 ml (about 1.9 cups) milk
  • 100 ml (about 0.4 cup) cream
  • optionally, about ¼ teaspoon or less of (pure and genuine) vanilla extract
Instructions
  1. In a saucepan (and while whisking to avoid the dairy becoming burnt) bring the milk and the cream to an exact boil (100º Celsius/212º F).
  2. Immediately take the saucepan off the heat and put in the tea-bags into the dairy.
  3. Submerge the teabags and let them infuse in three to five minutes.
  4. After (maximum) five minutes, remove the teabags (let them 'drop off', but avoid squeezing them since this is likely to add some bitterness to the tea-flavour) and discard them.
  5. With this tea-infused dairy, now prepare a typical custard ice cream base:
  6. Whisk together egg yolks and the sugar.
  7. Slowly and little by little, add the hot tea-infused dairy to the egg-sugar mix.
  8. When the all has been well mixed, pour back the blend into the saucepan.
  9. If using, add a minimal amount of vanilla (once again, a concession to the overall tea-flavour).
  10. While whisking constantly, now bring the ice cream base to about 82-84º Celsius (189-183 ºF). While a thermometer always is handy at this stage, you could also rely on the Spoon-test: the custard should be ready when you are able to draw a line that stays with your finger through the custard on the back of a spoon.
  11. Once the custard base is ready, take it off the heat and let it cool down as quickly as possible.
  12. Once cooled down, place it in the refrigerator to chill for a few hours, and preferably over night, before churning. Allowing the custard base to 'mature' will result in better consistency and improved flavours.
Recipe by ICE CREAM NATION at https://www.icecreamnation.org/2013/05/tea-ice-cream-earl-grey/