Chai tea doubly warming because of the spices in it, and it's usually drank as a warm tea, but in ice cream form the cold cream and the spices are zesty and refreshing. The particular combination of spices used by Oliver Pluff & Co. is one of my favorites I've found so far. This Charleston company is Certified SC and have a lot of other great teas in addition to their chai. Check out their wares either in Charleston or online!
Masala Chai Ice Cream
Warm up your ice cream experience by steeping spiced masala chai tea bags into a cool ice cream.
Ingredients
- 4 masala Chai tea bags
- 1 cup of milk
- 2 cups whipping cream divided
- ¾ cup sugar
- 1 light shake of salt
- 2 egg yolks beaten together
- a large bowl of water and ice for an ice bath
Instructions
- Set up an ice bath by filling a large mixing bowl with ice, and water, then placing a smaller bowl that can adequately still hold the contents of the saucepan within the ice and water. Pour one cup of cream in the smaller bowl to chill. Set aside.
- Pour the milk and one cup of cream into a saucepan. Add the tea bags and heat the mixture over medium high heat but do not let it boil. Lower the heat and simmer for ten more minutes, stirring frequently. Let’s put it this way, don’t even walk away. Stir it enough that a milk skin doesn’t form across the top. Press on the teabags frequently to release the flavors.
- Add the sugar and keep stirring til it is dissolved.
- Once the sugar is dissolved, remove the pan from the heat. Bring the eggs closer to the milk sugar mixture and take one small spoonful and drip it into the yolks, CONSTANTLY STIRRING. This is called tempering the eggs, which means bringing the temperature of the eggs up to the temperature of the hot mixture without it cooking the eggs. Keep adding one small spoonful of the hot milk sugar mix into the eggs at a time, stirring constantly. If the eggs start to get chunky and scrambled, throw them out and start again. Once the eggs are very warm, slowly add them into the milk sugar mixture, again, stirring constantly. If any small egg chunks appear here, just discard them.
- Put the pan back on low heat and stir the mixture constantly until the mixture is thick enough to coat the back of the spoon without dripping off. If it is still runny, keep on stirring. This should not take more than 10 minutes. Do not walk away from the stove. Use your phone to play on Twitter or something while stirring with the other hand.
- Once it’s not running off the spoon consistency, remove from heat and run it over to the ice bath. Pour it into the small bowl with the chilled cream and mix the two together.
- Put the mixture in the fridge. You can put the whole ice bath set up in there, or not. It’s up to you. Let it chill for a few hours at least, or up to overnight.
- Once it’s chilled, throw that mixture in an ice cream maker and freeze overnight before serving.