I recently bought an ice cream maker and am now obsessed with making homemade ice cream. Whether this is a good thing or a bad one depends on whether I’m looking at my scale or enjoying the ice cream, but either way I’m having a lot of fun trying out new recipes.
Pistachio ice cream is one of my favorites, but one thing I don’t like about nuts in ice cream is how soft they become. I had an idea of how to fix this, and I like the results. If you can, use organic eggs and dairy. I’ve made ice cream both ways but the organic tastes richer and creamier.
Base:
1 1/2 cups heavy or whipping cream
1 1/2 cups whole milk
1 cup toasted unsalted shelled pistachios, coarsely chopped
2 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp almond extract
Addition:
1/2 to 3 /4 cup whole toasted unsalted shelled pistachios
1 1/2 to 2 tbsp unsalted butter
1 1/2 to 2 tbsp brown sugar
Sprinkle of sea salt (about 1/8 tsp should do)
Heat milk and cream in a heavy saucepan, bringing to a low simmer. Place nuts in cheesecloth, making a loose bundle. Add to milk and cream mixture and simmer for 30 minutes. You don’t have to do the cheesecloth step, but if you do, you shouldn’t have to strain the mixture so you don’t have small bits of pistachios in the custard.
In a bowl, whisk eggs until deep yellow and frothy, about one minute. Add sugar and whisk until fully blended. You can do this with an electric blender or a whisk. It’s so easy I use a whisk so there’s less clean up.
When milk, cream, and pistachio have been simmering for half an hour, remove pistachios from the hot base. (If you didn’t use cheesecloth, strain the mixture into a bowl with a fine mesh sieve.) Add one cup of the liquid to the egg and sugar mixture and whip thoroughly. Add the rest of the liquid from the saucepan into the bowl; stir in vanilla and almond extracts making sure the ingredients are well mixed. Place in the refrigerator until completely chilled.
I’ve also put the bowl in the freezer to chill. This works ok as long as you don’t forget about it and let it freeze. If that happens, you have to start over, so I would suggest setting a kitchen timer for ten minutes and checking it every ten minutes until the mixture is cool.
Once the custard is cool, place it in your ice cream mixer and follow the instructions.
While the ice cream is mixing, heat the butter and brown sugar together in a small pan, sprinkling the sea salt over the mixture once everything is melted. How much butter and sugar you use depends on how candied you want the nuts. Just make sure to keep the proportions equal. Don’t use more salt, the sea salt is to give the butter and sugar a small bite, but you don’t want salty ice cream. Do not let the mixture burn; remove from heat as soon as the butter, sugar and salt are combined. Add the pistachios to the pan and stir until the nuts are completely covered. Pour onto a piece of tin foil and freeze the candied nuts until you are ready to add them to your ice cream
My ice cream maker is a blue 1 1/2 quart Cuisinart ® I got at Sur La Table, and it takes about thirty minutes to make the ice cream. When you have two minutes left to go in the cycle, slowly add the nuts to the ice cream so you get a nice even distribution.
You can eat the ice cream immediately and it will have a soft serve consistency. Even better is to freeze for about two hours so the flavors will deepen.
Don’t ask me about the calorie count; it made my head hurt even contemplating it. I will say though: this is rich enough that you will be more than satisfied with a half-cup serving.