Orange Earl Grey Ice Cream

By beijinggirl • January 14, 2012 • 3 Comments

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Author Notes: This is a simple ice cream recipe that, although I've only made a few times, has gotten rave reviews and was even asked to be a birthday present for someone! For this, I used Fine Cooking's basic ice cream custard recipe and added orange zest and earl grey tea to jazz it up. Perfect for a lazy afternoon! - beijinggirl

Makes about 1 quart

2 cups whole milk
3/4 cups sugar
pinches salt
4 tablespoons finely grated orange zest
1/4 cup best quality earl grey tea
4 large egg yolks
1 cup heavy cream

Mix the milk, sugar and salt in a medium saucepan. Warm the milk mixture over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally until the sugar dissolves and tiny bubbles start to form, about 3-4 minutes.
Stir the orange zest and tea into the warm milk mixture. Cover, remove from the heat and let sit for an hour and 15 minutes.
Once the milk mixture has been infused, re-warm it over medium-high heat until tiny bubbles begin to form, about 1-2 minutes. Pour half of the warm milk mixture into the egg yolks whisking constantly to make sure the egg yolks don't curdle.
Pour the egg mixture back into the saucepan and cook over low heat, stirring constantly and scraping the bottom of the pan until the custard thickens slightly, 4-8 minutes or 180˚F. Immediately strain the mixture into the cold cream in the ice bath. Press firmly with a spoon to make sure all of the flavor is extracted.
Chill the custard in the fridge for at least 4 hours and freeze in an ice-cream maker. Put in an air-tight container and let ice cream firm up in freezer until solid, about 3-4 hours.