A southern style dinner of pulled pork called for a southern style dessert. I had Georgia on my mind when I decided on cinnamon basil peach ice cream with toasted pecans. Herbal ice creams are a delicious way to capture the flavors of summer. Infuse your herb of choice in a warmed cream and milk mixture before proceeding with your recipe. This year I have used lavender, anise hyssop, lemon grass with lemon basil and cinnamon basil. Cinnamon basil is a cultivar of regular basil. It is a smaller plant with small dark green leaves tinged with purple. It gets it’s cinnamon flavor and aroma from a chemical compound, cinnamite. Peach is a nice complement to the cinnamon basil. Be sure to taste the pureed peaches for sweetness before adding them to the base. I also added a small piece of cinnamon stick to the infusion to accentuate the cinnamon flavor.
For this recipe I chose to make a custard or French ice cream. Ice cream comes in two different styles, Philadelphia style and custard. Custard style ice cream contains eggs or just egg yolks that are cooked gently with milk and heavy cream. The egg yolks are emulsifiers that make the ice cream smooth and rich. Philadelphia style ice cream contains cream, sugar and a flavor base, such as vanilla bean with no eggs. It is less rich than custard ice cream but is said to have a more intense flavor. Let me add making a Philadelphia style ice cream would be more desirable for a beginner, no chance for sweetened scrambled eggs!
Cinnamon Basil Peach Ice Cream
Made with the assistance of Fine Cooking’s ice cream recipe maker
Makes a generous quart
Ingredients
- 2 c heavy cream
- 1 c whole milk
- 3/4 c granulated sugar
- table salt
- 1 c tightly packed, coarsely torn cinnamon basil leaves
- 1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise, seeds scraped out
- 1 4-inch cinnamon stick broken in half
- 5 large egg yolks
- 1-1/2 fresh peaches, peeled, pitted, cooked to soften, and pureed
- 1/2 c toasted pecan pieces
Directions
- In a medium saucepan, mix 1 cup of the cream with the milk, sugar and a pinch of salt. Warm the cream mixture over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until the sugar dissolves and tiny bubbles begin to form around the edge of the pan, 3 to 4 minutes.
- Stir in the basil, split vanilla bean and cinnamon stick. Cover, remove from heat, and let sit for 1 hour. Taste and let sit longer if you want a stronger flavor.
- While the mixture is steeping, prepare an ice bath by filling a large bowl with several inches of ice water. Set a smaller metal bowl (one that holds at least 1 1/2 quarts) in the ice water. Pour the remaining cup of cream into the inner bowl. This helps cool the custard cool quicker when you pour it in later. Set a fine strainer on top. Whisk the egg yolks in a medium bowl.
- Rewarm the cream mixture over medium high heat until tiny bubbles begin to form around the edge of the pan, 1 to 2 minutes. In a steady stream pour half of the warm cream mixture into the egg yolks, whisking constantly to prevent the eggs from curdling.
- Pour the egg mixture back into the saucepan and cook over low heat, stirring constantly and scraping the bottom with a heatproof rubber spatula until the custard thickens slightly (it should be thick enough to coat the spatula and hold a line drawn through it with a finger), 4 to 8 minutes. An instant read thermometer should read 175 degrees to 180 degrees F at this point. Do not let the custard overheat or boil, or it will curdle. Immediately strain the custard into the cold cream in the ice bath. Press firmly on the basil, vanilla bean and cinnamon in the strainer with the spatula to extract as much flavor as possible.
- Cool the custard to below 70 degrees F by stirring it over the ice bath. Taste your peach puree for sweetness and adjust accordingly. Stir the peach puree into the cooled custard.
- Refrigerate the custard until completely chilled, at least 4 hours or preferably over night.
- Toast pecan pieces in a small dry non-stick skillet until lightly browned and fragrant. Set aside to cool.
- Freeze the custard in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions. When the ice cream is at the soft serve stage, stir in the nuts.
- Transfer the just-churned ice cream to an air-tight container and freeze for at least 4 hours or up to 2 weeks (if it lasts that long…)
