coffee straciatella ice cream
it's basically summer so prepare for 12 weeks of nothing but ice cream (joking, kinda)
hey hi hello,
Man, you’d think when I say something like “oh when you have a perfect base recipe, it’ll make every iteration you develop afterwards easier”.. I’d live by those words. And, I do. I really do. Most times, it really is a little bing, bang, boom moment. In and out in two mods and a retest. poifect. Then, there’s this one. Which the thing is, every single time I am making really good ice cream… really good anything actually. But, it’s not like “perfect”… whatever the heck that means. I could truly go on forever tweaking the same recipe. I do, I do, I do, get really in my head with it sometimes.
Sometimes, it’s definitely because there is an intent to share the recipe. Actually, all the time it’s because there’s intent to share the recipe. Because if I were just making coffee stracciatella, I would have been fine with the first version of it. Eating the entire pint and never making it again. Even if I did make it again, it’s like okay well now I have a new chance to do it a little differently and see what happens. If it’s not the most potent coffee flavor or I curdled the milk because the acidity from the coffee was too much… It’s fine. Because it’s just for me, and it doesn’t have to be neat and meant for replication. Cause yeah, I did curdle the milk once and I did still temper it into the eggs and sugar to remulsify it. You know what, it was FINE enough for me. But, I would never tell you to curdle your dairy and still rock with something that, yeah… is a little grainy. what.? If it’s being shared, it’s being tested within an inch of it’s life.
Most of this specific recipe comes down to the preference of flavor aspect, wanting a nice amount of coffee flavor and just the right amount of chocolate flakes to not overwhelm. But, when it comes to something like flavor and the amount of chocolate flecked through out, that’s allllll personal preference baby. That was the easy part, I know myself, I know what I like and how much of it I want to have at once.
I did play around with 6 different ways to infuse the flavor into the base, because omg just because the first way I did it came out totally fine n delish doesn’t mean that something more convoluted couldn’t be better (spoiler bitch… simplicity is key). But, I mean I did relearn (because I knew this but I thought I was better than the facts of science, it happens) that boiling coffee infused milk for 5+ minutes will curdle your dairy, since coffee is in fact acidic! But, yeah I played around with things like which dairy got steeped with the coffee, when the dairy got steeped with coffee, how the beans were processed before being steeped in the dairy. Sometimes, I wish I knew how to leave well enough alone. hahahahahahahaha. The beauty in my psychotic quest for something so intangible (perfection), is that you don’t have to putz around with 9 different ways to infuse ice cream with coffee. YAYYOU!
Semi-existential quips aside, the coffee you use here matters, so use something you like. I’m gonna be honest 9 times out of 10, when some coffee bro is telling me that the beans in this latte have notes of candied citrus, tamarind and a brisk winter breeze, I don’t actually get it. I mean, I get what you mean, but I hardly ever taste said nuance of flavor. dear god shut up. BUT, in ice cream? oh boy. I used beans from Little While here in San Diego, their Ethiopia + Paupua New Guinea blend. Notes include: Candy bar, Sweetness, Chocolate- Covered Cherry and Raisin. Before you get hit with that pure coffee note, the flavor of the ice cream was like a sweet caramel biscuit. Think inside of a twix bar. I dunno man, use what you like- use what you want, cause you’re gonna taste it deeply.
And when it comes to the chocolate for this recipe, I polled whether or not it would be annoying for the recipe to not use the whole bar of chocolate. The verdict is in… and baby girl that’s just the chef snack. I think the full 4 ounce bar is too much chocolate for this amount of base, but i’m also not the biggest chocolate loving gal. If you are, use the entire bar. If you just like the faint idea of chocolate flecks, then drop it down and use 2 ounces. if you hate chocolate? Use zero ounces, you are the one in control here.
Nuff yaps, let’s get cookin’.
COFFEE STRACCIATELLA
TOOLS:
Ziploc bag
Mallet
Mixing bowls, 2 medium + 1 large
INGREDIENTS:
80 grams coffee beans
380 grams whole milk
50 grams light corn syrup
320 grams heavy cream
140 grams granulated sugar
100 grams egg yolks (approx 5 large egg yolks)
3/4 teaspoons diamond crystal kosher salt
3-4 ounces of semi-sweet chocolate *optional*
DIRECTIONS:
Add the 80 grams of coffee beans to a ziploc bag, use a mallet to lightly crush the beans. For the most part they should be broken in half and not fully pulverized- some whole beans remaining is totally fine. Set aside.
Add 380 grams whole milk and 50 grams light corn syrup to a medium saucepan. Place the saucepan over medium heat and bring to a simmer.
While that comes to temp, prepare an ice bath for your base. Fill a large mixing bowl with about 4 cups of ice and 1/2 cup of cold water. Nestle a smaller, shallow metal or glass bowl into the ice water. Fill this smaller bowl with 320 grams of heavy cream. Place the fine mesh sieve over the bowl and set aside.
Once the milk is at a simmer, drop the heat to medium-low and maintain the simmer for 5 minutes. You do not want this to boil, so keep an eye on it. Gentle simmer. 5 minutes. Set a timer.
While that simmers away, to a separate bowl add the 140 grams granulated sugar, 100 grams egg yolks and 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt. Use a whisk to aerate the mixture. It should be light and paled in color.
Once the 5 minutes of simmering is up, gently temper the hot milk into the sugar yolk mixture. You’ll add a ladle full of milk to the yolks, whisking to fully combine before adding the next ladle full. The mixture will be sufficiently tempered once about half of the warm milk has been added in.
Pour the tempered yolks into the remaining milk in the saucepan along with the 80 grams of crushed coffee beans from earlier, while agitating the mixture in the saucepan with a rubber spatula.
Keep the mixture moving with the rubber spatula to avoid scorching/scrambling the egg proteins.
Cook until the mixture reaches 180-185F. The mixture should be thick enough to coat the back of the spatula, a process known as achieving nappe.
Pour the mixture into the heavy cream that’s sat over the ice bath. Use the rubber spatula to gently swirl the two liquids together until evenly combined.
Stir the base every so often until it reaches 50F or below.
Transfer to a storage container, covering the top of the base directly with plastic wrap.
Chill in the fridge overnight, allowing your ice cream base to cure and infuse with coffee flavor.
The next day , before you’re ready to spin your base, melt the 3-4 ounces of semi-sweet chocolate in a metal bowl paced over a small pot of simmering water. Remove from the heat and allow to cool slightly, should be 80-85F before being added to your ice cream base.
Strain the ice cream base through a fine mesh sieve, pushing as much base as possible through the coffee beans. Pour the base into your ice cream machine and churn to the manufacturer’s instructions. Depending on the machine this could take 15-30 minutes. You want the base to reach a texture similar to soft serve ice cream and should have a temp of 25F (this can be hard to reach in drum style machines).
Once thickened, with the machine still spinning, slowly stream in the warm chocolate. As the machine keeps turning, the chocolate will elongate, firm up and shatter into fine flecks.
Transfer the ice cream to a freezer safe airtight container. Nothing too thick otherwise this can get in the way of the ice creams ability to freeze down, which can ultimately affect its final texture. I usually just throw it into a deli.
Label + date your container always.
Freeze for a minimum of 3-4 hours before scooping and serving. Of course you can sneak a few spoonfuls of the fresh churned ice cream too.
Consume within 2-3 weeks for the best texture. Your ice cream will freeze down pretty hard, that’s due to that high butterfat content & because home freezers aren’t set to a temp for optimal straight from the freezer scoopabilty. So, just let your ice cream sit out on the counter for a few minutes to temper for the best texture!
ENJOY!!
