Homemade Earl Grey Ice Cream

[Ginny Blundy]

Did this strictly as an experiment since I just acquired a new ice cream maker. OH. MY. GOD. So tasty.

In case you're interested, I took the following recipe and edited it a bit: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/serious-vanilla-ice-cream-recipe/index.html

I left out the vanilla bean and the peach preserves, but still subtracted 2 tablespoons sugar as directed (I've done this recipe before as it's written - it's way too sweet). At the point in which you remove the batter from the heat and let it cool, I put in 3 bags of Earl Grey. I let it steep for about 30 or 45 minutes, then squeezed the tea bags and discarded them. Squeezing seems imperative - I've seen this recommended on other recipes for Earl Grey ice cream. I think the heavy cream prevents the tea from diffusing into the mix very well, and squeezing appears to have fixed that.

Now that it has rested in the fridge over night, churned, been put into the freezer to set up, and finally tasted, I must admit that the biggest challenge is saving some for my family for tomorrow night.

[Captain]

I had similarly good luck with an Earl Grey Liqueur a while back.


Ingredients
   2 ts tea leaves*
   1 1/2 c Vodka
   1/2 c clear honey


Preparation

Steep the tea leaves in vodka for 24 hours - NOT longer as a bitter taste will occur. Strain and add honey. Age for at least 2 weeks (until clear). *Your favorite tea may be used for the flavor you desire and spices can be added as well. Yield: 1 pint Container: Quart jar

[Ginny Blundy]

Tea. Such a versatile drink!

[Lilith-Nighthawk]

Is it bad i want the ancient stargate dialer from sg1 made with earl grey ice cream, or maby regular cake with flavored icing? I want the gate made the same way.

[Otto Von Pifka]

life size?!?

it'll go straight to your hips!


for some reason buttery sweet corn icecream sounds good to me, with a good shake of black pepper.

or perhaps thai beef salad icecream.

I'm not a tea drinker but that icecream sounds good, I've had green tea icecream and it was horrid, but everyone else who tried it thought so too.

[Ginny Blundy]

Otto, maybe it was just the batch of green tea ice cream you tried? I've had it before at Chinese restaurants, and always enjoyed it.

Of course, now that I've made one tea-flavored ice cream, the windows of possibility are opening up and requests are flooding in. Next tea flavor I'll be trying - Chai Masala ice cream. Which is most likely a match made in heaven.

After my original post, I brought the Earl Grey ice cream to a birthday at my mom's house for one of my nephews. I also brought the more conventional flavor that I made - chocolate. Everyone preferred the Earl Grey, including the kids. Two of my nephews informed me that the Earl Grey ice cream tasted like Fruit Loops. I informed them that it actually tasted like the wonderful medley of black tea and bergamot oil. They looked at me like I was silly.

I still contend that it tastes precisely like Earl Grey tea and ice cream, but later that same evening, without having heard my nephews' opinion on the issue, another adult said it tasted like Fruit Loops - but also that it was very good and she liked it. Strange, unexpected effect.

[Mad Maudlin]

Earl Grey tastes nothing like froot loops. 

[Wilhelmina Frame]

for some reason buttery sweet corn icecream sounds good to me, with a good shake of black pepper.

I can attest, that sweet corn ice is very good as the gourmet ice cream stand around the corner form my house makes it sometimes. I do believe they make Earl Grey also but I have not had it. Their best selling flavor is Salted Caramel. Apparently they sell 20+ gallons a week.

[Ginny Blundy]

Earl Grey tastes nothing like froot loops. 

I agree fully, but of course we aren't talking about Earl Grey tea. We're talking about Earl Grey ice cream. I didn't think it tasted like Fruit Loops either, but I will say that in the ice cream the bergamot flavor was far stronger than the tea flavor, which was much more of a subtle note. This is odd because the tea I used tastes a little low on bergamot when I brew a cup. Plus, it has a lot of sugar in it - this is far sweeter than I'm sure any of us take our tea. So I think that's where people are getting the Fruit Loops comparison.

I got a phone call last night from my sister in law and her friend saying they wanted me to make more tea-flavored ice creams, and that they were going into business selling my tea flavored ice cream, and they would let me work for them. I lost control of that one even quicker than usual.

[AntonyRB]

I really quite badly wanna try earl grey ice cream now.

[James Harrison]

I really quite badly wanna try earl grey ice cream now.

Seconded

[Airship Apprentice]

I really quite badly wanna try earl grey ice cream now.

Seconded

I third this notion (thirded didn't seem right)...but I would have to modify mine to be lactose free...sadly I found out all my delicious snacks are off limits until I can find substitutes.

[Ginny Blundy]

The recipe is discussed in the top post, friends, just get your ice cream maker and go wild! It was really quite easy.

I must add, I've been making homemade ice cream for a few years now, and once you start doing it the right way (see the recipe - while there are a number of recipes out there you can use, doing it the right way basically means making your ice cream from real ingredients instead of a powdered mix, and then refrigerating the batter overnight before churning it), you'll love it. Homemade ice cream will cause your friends and family to believe that you are some sort of dessert master. At any rate, if you don't have an ice cream maker and don't know if it is worth the purchase just to make Earl Grey ice cream, I'd say go ahead and make the purchase. Simply making ice cream once will probably get you hooked, and you'll want to make it again, and try new flavors.

As for lactose intolerance, don't they make lactose-free versions of most dairy products now? Or perhaps you can do a search for a lactose-free ice cream recipe? I would recommend a vanilla ice cream recipe, substituting tea for the vanilla.

[Clockwork Phoenix]

That sounds fantastic... Must make room in freezer for ice cream machine- It never gets enough use! Rather tempted by the idea of trying out chai ice cream as well, as that's what I have the most of. 

[Airship Apprentice]

As for lactose intolerance, don't they make lactose-free versions of most dairy products now? Or perhaps you can do a search for a lactose-free ice cream recipe? I would recommend a vanilla ice cream recipe, substituting tea for the vanilla.

They do...but they don't taste right to me. I got some lactose free ice cream and it tastes freezer burnt..idk
I like the idea though for substituting the tea for vanilla....thanks for the suggestion!

[Lilith-Nighthawk]

I'm very seriously tempted to half the sugar content of this recipe. Has any one tried that? Maybe it would produce a more true earl grey flavor to tea flavored tea. The posibilitys are endless. Masala would go great after an indian themed meal.

[Ginny Blundy]

Lilith, I've never halfed the sugar, but when I removed the two tablespoons, I removed a very liberal two tablespoons (probably came close to 3). It was still pretty sweet.

Exact measurements aren't too important in this recipe, but there is some chemistry involved - something about refrigerating the batter overnight causes the ice cream to be soft when you freeze it after churning, like store-bought ice cream is. If you've ever had homemade ice cream that had been stored in the freezer and that was hard as a rock, that was because it didn't go through the overnight mellowing process before churning. I'm not sure what role sugar plays in that chemistry, so too little sugar might change the consistency. Not to mention, I expect ice cream to be sweet - too little sugar, and it's not going to taste like ice cream to me.

Having said all that, these are pretty cheap ingredients. So I say experiment - go play mad scientist with this recipe if you want it less sweet, and give us a status report on the results! I had no guarantee that altering this recipe would turn out right, but I don't mind wasting a little sugar, cream, and tea on an experiment. It's certainly better than buying expensive vanilla beans and then screwing up the results on that!

Regarding Chai - Chai Masala ice cream is going to be my next tea ice cream experiment. My partner loves Chai, and honestly ice cream a la Masala seems like a natural. I bet it would go very nice with an Indian meal - or with those wonderful gingerbread cookies from World Market! Yum!

[Professor Ross]

I'm going to have to try this sometime.

Thanks for the idea!

[Lilith-Nighthawk]

Yea I know what you mean. But vanilla flavored ice cream tends to be way to sweet for me most of the time. I even avoid it in ice cream cake.  I might just take 3 or 4 tablespoons out instead.

[Mina]

Made this the other night and I absolutely love it!

My dad says it tastes like honey, but I think it tastes like Earl Grey, though perhaps with a little, or a lot, more cream and sugar than I would normally add. But still absolutely delicious!

[Ginny Blundy]

I'm so glad you liked it! Reactions to the flavor do seem to vary, but so far they've been positive. Perhaps using more tea would strengthen the flavor, and put the taste much more firmly in the realm of tea. Maybe next time I'll use 5 or 6 tea bags.

Right, it's much sweeter than I would take my tea. But my thoughts on that are basically that I expect ice cream to be pretty sweet, and it tastes how I expect ice cream and tea to taste together.