Coffee Ice Cream & A New Perspective Where Art & Coffee Meet

I love both coffee and tea equally. But generally, I try to avoid having both on a regular basis. But a coffee ice cream is something I can’t stop dreaming about. It’s my second favorite flavor after vanilla. I keep on trying with new flavors, when it comes to ice creams, but there is something beyond exquisite thing about your classic favorites, which make you keep going back to them.

The easiest and the no churn coffee ice cream, I made somewhere last year was this Vietnamese Coffee Ice Cream. That had me into submission, totally. It was a genius of David Lebovitz. A true Perfect Scoop! Easily doable yet nonetheless fantastic! Next one I wanted to try his another custard based version, but I didn’t have any ice cream maker at home. And I kept myself satisfied with the no-churn one and forgot about the other.

The other one was deeply buried somewhere down my brain, until recently, when my coffee experience got richer at one of the New Perspective series initiated by Le Meridien, New Delhi. It was when dark sensuous coffee met finer arts on a wet rainy afternoon. The weather couldn’t have been any better.

It definitely called for a perfectly brewed sip of one of the finer creations of the Italian brew master Nicola Scognamiglio, who is also a barista trainer at Illy Coffee’s Asia Pacific division. It’s the art of brewing coffee, which the coffee expert teaches at the University Del Caffee. We got lucky enough to hear some of his great thoughts about brewing coffee and a deeper insight into the subject.

The facts that, the milk should only be warmed up to 60 degree C, not scorching boiling, otherwise it will caramelize the sugar in milk and will give a different flavor to the coffee.  We tried three of Nicola’s wonderful creations. Marocchino Caldo, Espresso Greco and Cappuccino Freddo. Marocchino Caldo, espresso with hot thick chocolate, cocoa and milk, was the one which suited my taste buds. It basically reminded me of the coffee we used to have in old times, generously sprinkled with sweet cocoa.

But this wasn’t enough for that afternoon. Artists Suddhasattva Basu’s artistic creations were yet to be experienced, while we sipped through some of the finest coffee concoctions.  His art represented the nature in form of  sacred garden, lotus leaves, flowers, aqua life, birds. Birds sitting on benches in garden almost made me feel, as if I can hear their sweet chirping. It was such a live art.

An amazing blend of coffee and art really made my day and on the plus side my coffee love grew stronger. So much so, I ended up churning this coffee ice cream the very next day. Many thanks to Anasuya Basu and Meena Bhatia from Le Meridien for organizing this wonderful afternoon.

Recipe minimally adapted from The Perfect Scoop

Yields: more than a pint

Ingredients

1 1/2 cup whole milk
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 cup whole coffee beans
pinch of salt
1/4 cup mascarpone {at room temprature}, {click here for homemade recipe}
1 1/2 cup low fat cream
5 large egg yolks
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp finely ground coffee

Instructions

1. Warm the milk, sugar, whole coffee beans, salt and 1/2 cup of cream in a medium saucepan. Once the mixture is warm, cover, remove from heat and let steep at room temperature for 1 hour.
2. Rewarm the coffee-infused milk mixture. Pour the remaining 1 cup cream into a large bowl and set a mesh strainer on top.
3. In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the egg yolks. Slowly pour the warm coffee mixture into the egg yolks, whisking constantly, then scrape the warmed egg yolks back into the saucepan.
4. Stir the mixture constantly over medium heat with a heatproof spatula, scraping the bottom as you stir, until the mixture thickens and coats the spatula.. Strain the custard through a strainer and stir into the cream. Press on the coffee beans in the strainer to extract as much of the coffee flavor as possible, then discard the beans.
5. Let the mixture cool for 30 minutes on room temperature. Mix in the vanilla, finely ground coffee and mascarpone, after the mixture is slightly cooled.
6. Chill the mixture thoroughly in the refrigerator, then freeze it in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Freeze in freezer, until ready to serve.