Chai ice cream

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This tasty ice cream has a wonderful creaminess and great chai spice and tea flaovrs.

Prep Time10

Cook Time30

cooling time (min)8

Total Time40

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American, British

Servings: approx (makes approx 1 quart/940ml)

Calories: 215kcal

Author: Caroline

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Ingredients

For spice-infused milk-cream base

1 ½ cups milk whole/full fat milk
1 ½ cups heavy cream double cream
1 cinnamon stick or 2 if smaller/thin
1 star anise
8 cardamom pods (green cardamom)
8 cloves
8 allspice whole
½ teaspoon black peppercorns
3 slices ginger fresh

For rest of ice cream

2 bags black tea or 3 if you prefer stronger
¼ teaspoon masala chai spice optional, if needed
3 egg yolks
⅔ cup sugar divided

Instructions

For spice-infused base

Place the milk and cream in a heavy based pot/pan and add the whole spices - cinnamon stick, star anise, cardamom, cloves, allspice, peppercorns and slices of fresh ginger.
Warm the mixture over a medium low heat for around 5 - 10 minutes, until the mixture is warm but not boiling. Remove from heat and leave to steep around 45 minutes.

For rest of ice cream

Add the tea bags to the spiced milk-cream base, along with around half of the sugar. Warm again for a couple minutes to re-heat but again without simmering, then leave to steep around 10 minutes. You should notice the color becoming quite a bit darker.
Whisk together the egg yolks and remaining sugar in a small bowl until well combined and slightly glossy.
Taste a little of the milk-cream base and if needed, add a little ground masala chai spice to boost the spice flavors. Re-warm the milk-cream mixture over a medium heat until it is starting to steam slightly but just below reaching a simmer.
Carefully add a small amount (around a couple tablespoons or so) of the warm milk-cream mixture to the yolk mixture and whisk as you add so it combines without cooking the egg. Once mixed, add a little more, mix then repeat.
After you have added the warm milk around three or four times, pour the eggy mixture in to the main pot/pan. I suggest removing the tea bags at this stage, though you can leave a little longer if you prefer. Place the pot back on the stove over a medium-low heat. Warm the mixture, stirring constantly, so that it thickens up a little. Take care - DO NOT BOIL. It should warm to around 170F/76C. It won't thicken all that much but at least a little.
Strain the mixture through a relatively fine strainer to remove all the spices and any other solids then let the cream mixture cool. After it is cool enough, place in the fridge to chill at least a few hours but ideally overnight.
Once chilled, follow your ice cream maker's instructions to churn the mixture to a soft serve consistency. Once soft-serve texture, add in the chopped crystalized ginger pieces, churn briefly to mix then transfer to a container and place in freezer for a few hours to firm up before serving.

Video

Notes

I used caster sugar to help it dissolve quicker but you can use other sugars if that's all you have. Just I'd recommend you don't use anything too coarse so it dissolves before reaching a simmer.

This makes a medium-sweet syrup but you can make it sweeter or more tart/sharp with more or less sugar relative to the water amount.

You can chop the ginger rather than slice, but it may be harder to strain - you don't want any pieces left in the syrup.

Nutrition

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