No-sweat No-churn Ice Cream: Earl Grey Pistachio & Rose Black Sesame

   It has been so hot these past couple days, not to mention humid. Life-wise, my seemingly brief summer is quickly coming to an end. Perhaps to slow down—freeze you might say—the last few moments, but more pragmatically to cool off during these hot summer days [daze] I figured it was time for ice cream. Given the recent advent of gourmet ice cream flavors, it wouldn’t have been difficult to find a flavor to my liking, but what would have been the fun in that? In line with Michael Pollan’s rule #45: eat all the junk food you want as long as you cook it yourself, I figured I’d make ice cream, especially given the added plus of getting to create my own flavors. Thanks to an Asia trip over the summer, I had a craving for a few things in particular. One incredible Earl Grey/Bailey’s panna cotta was enough to convince me to start experimenting with tea flavors. Black sesame has also always been a personal favorite given its savory rich nuttiness balancing a sweet dessert. This time I decided to pair it with some floral tones using rosewater.

    In terms of experience making ice cream, I’d only made a simple 3-ingredient no-churn vanilla ice cream before consisting of vanilla bean, heavy whipping cream and sweet condensed milk. A little bit of effort and minimal equipment yielded a satisfying, creamy dessert. So to make these, I decided to start with the same recipe but work with a half-batch per ice cream. Both involved an extra step of infusing the flavor of choice into the cream and letting it cool before proceeding with the recipe as usual. Delayed gratification, but good things come to those who wait.

   A few more notes regarding these flavors—while making them, I did notice the cream did not whip past soft peaks, whereas the original recipe whipped into stiff peaks. After freezing and trying them, I can safely say it’s fine—the ice cream stayed creamy, not icy. I loved the outcome of the flavors. While I didn’t have any Cortas Rosewater, I found a small bottle of rosewater at a local grocery store. However, looking at the ingredients it seemed more like a concentrated rose extract, which worked in my favor given that a small amount went a long way without increasing the likelihood of icy ice cream. The fragrant rose flavor complemented the black sesame as I’d hoped, and the Earl Grey did not disappoint, especially with some texture and a light flavor from the coarsely crushed pistachios I mixed in. Trying these two together was perfect; the rose in the black sesame brought out the floral tones in the Earl grey, something I hadn’t detected before when drinking the beverage. Something unexpected was that one of the tea bags burst mid-squeeze while I was trying to extract the flavor, but it worked out for the better, resulting in a tea-specked ice cream. To replicate this, I’m specifying that one of the tea bags be of muslin cloth, the other regular paper. And now for the recipes!

Black Sesame Rose || Earl Grey Pistachio Ice Cream

Ingredients

a

For rose black sesame

• 4 heaping Tb. of black sesame powder
• 1 cup heaving whipping cream
• 1/3 can of sweet condensed milk
• 1 tsp. crushed dried rosehip/rosebud petals
• 1/2 tsp. rose extract

For Earl Grey pistachio

• 2 Earl Grey tea bags (1 muslin, 1 paper)
• 1 cup heavy whipping cream
• 1/3 sweet condensed milk
• ¼ cup roasted unsalted pistachios—chopped/crushed coarsely*

*An easy way to do this is to place the whole pistachios in a ziploc bag and use a heavy (ish) flat object, like a wine bottle or rolling pin to crush them into smaller pieces

Directions

Infuse the cream

• For rose black sesame: combine cream, black sesame and rose petals in small sauce pot over medium heat, stirring regularly until cream begins to simmer. Remove from heat and transfer to a lidded glass bowl. Stir in rosewater essence and let cool uncovered before further chilling in the fridge.
•  For Earl Grey pistachio: pour cream into small sauce pot and submerge teabags fully in the cream, being careful to keep the tags out of flame if using a gas stove. Heat over medium heat, stirring regularly and periodically using a spatula to press the tea bags and extract the flavor. As the cream begins to simmer, squeeze out as much cream as possible from the paper tea bag, then make a small opening and mix some of the Earl Grey tea, about ½ tsp., to the cream before removing. Once cream is simmering, turn off heat and transfer cream to lidded glass bowl. Let cool uncovered before further chilling in the fridge.

Chill--at least one, preferably two, large mixing bowls and mixer whisks in freezer for at least 10-15 minutes before whipping the cream.

Make ice cream base

• For rose black sesame: Make sure the cream is thoroughly chilled prior to beginning. Transfer cream to chilled mixing bowl and whip on high until soft peaks form, about 5-10 minutes. Slowly pour in sweet condensed milk and beat on a low speed to combine. Transfer to freezer-safe lidded glass container and freeze until solid, about 4-6 hours or simply overnight.
• For Earl Grey pistachio: As above, but with one additional step: mix in the crushed pistachios before placing in the freezer.

Serve--There’s not much to this—just scoop and enjoy! Optional garnishes I used were crushed dried rose petals for the black sesame, and pistachio dust for the Earl Grey. Good on a sunny or rainy day :]