Chai ice cream with pistachio and pomegranate
May 04, 2012 |
| Sweetly, spiced ice cream topped with crunchy pistachios and sweet pomegranate |
I came up with this idea after my mum started drinking chai. Whenever I am at home I can smell this beautiful aroma of festive spicy sweetness and will forever associate that beautiful, warming smell with my mum. I'm mixing up the comforting flavour of chai with my sweet tooth to create an ice cream that not only my mum and I can enjoy... everyone can. This simple recipe makes a truly divine and delicious ice cream Richly spiced with the exotic flavours of chai tea and smooth with double cream, the chopped nuts and sprinkled pomegranate seeds give a textural crunch and pop of sweetness making this dessert a real crowd pleaser.
Recipe:
It would probably be best to point out that I used an ice cream machine for this. I have made ice cream without one before but the time and effort involved never, in my experience, matches up to the brilliant result of the churning machine!
Makes 4 dinner party portions or 2 sitting in front of the TV portions...
250ml whole milk
250ml cream
70g caster sugar
2 chai tea bags
50g pistachios
1 pomegranate
24 hours before you want to make your ice cream you will have to put your churning bowl in the freezer.
Pour the milk into a saucepan and dunk in the chai tea bags, Shake in the caster sugar and swirl the pan until the mixture is smooth and the sugar is not gritty in the bottom of the pan.
Bring the milk to a simmer and squish the bag so that the milk begins to colour a deep creamy taupe colour.
Once the milk begins to fizz a little but before it boils, turn the heat off and take the pan off of the heat. Pour the milk and the bags into to a jug or bowl, cover with clingfilm and place in the fridge to cool completely.
When the mixture is completely cold, remove and squeeze the tea bags to get all of the infused milk out of them, make sure to mix in any strongly flavoured milk that is squished out of the bags. Pour in the double cream and mix well.
Now remove your ice cream bowl form the freezer, be sure only to hold it on the outside, the inside and possible the handle, as in my case, will be so cold that warm skin will stick to the surface. If you find your hands have stuck to the bowl, do not panic and try to pull them away, it will hurt and you'll end up with skin in your ice cream which no one likes. Still holding the bowl, calm move over to the sink and run the bowl where your skin is stuck under slightly warm water, not hot or it will hurt.
If you do not have taps that can be turned on using a forearm and you are worried about the possibility of sticking yourself to your ice cream machine then run a little warm water in the bowl before you retrieve it from the freezer.
Following the instructions for your machin
e, start it churning then pour the cream mixture into the bowl and leave it to churn. My instructions said to churn for 20-30 min to give me a soft scoop consistency. I then scoop out my ice cream into a tupperware bowl and pop back in the freezer to give me a firmer finished ice cream, this way you get a firmer scoop that sits nicely in the bowl and doesn't melt before you get to the table.
Chop your pistachios into a rough mixture of powder and nuts that have been only chipped in half, sprinkle these over ice cream balls and tap over pomegranate seeds to create a very pretty and tasty dessert.
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