Earl Grey Ice Cream Recipe

I went through a few Earl Grey ice cream recipes online trying to find one that I liked. The first version was from Van Leeuwen Artisan Ice Cream, which uses a traditional French custard style of ice cream using egg yolks. I probably left it on the stove for a bit too long, which cooked the yolks. It was still salvageable, but I wasn't impressed with the consistency. 

I'd heard remarkable things about the consistency of the Philadelphia style, and was keen to give it a go. The Philadelphia style is made without egg yolks, and Jeni Bauer's ice cream cookbook were making traction online for their sensational flavors and smooth consistency. She has a base recipe which lends itself easily to any flavour that you can think of. Lindsay from Scoop Adventures did an Earl Grey variation, and boy, did I hit the jackpot. It was everything I want from in my ice cream; a deep, bold earl grey profile that highlighted the smooth consistency of the dessert. Bonus!: Because of the no-egg rule, the recipe has quite a bit of leeway when cooking and there's no fear of leaving the mixture over a fire for a bit longer than you should have. 

Earl Grey Ice Cream

Adapted from Lindsay from Scoop Adventures. Original base recipe by Jeni Britton Bauer
Makes 1L 
I use Twinning's tea bags for this recipe. When cut open, 8 tea bags yield 15g of loose tea leaves. They were easily strained away afterwards with a nylon sieve, but I'm thinking for future recipes, I can leave them in the tea bags for convenience. Loose tea leaves in the photos are from French Earl Grey from Higher Living. 


INGREDIENTS
30ml + 470ml (500ml/2 cups) whole milk
315 ml (1 1/3 cups) heavy cream
100g sugar
30 ml (2 tablespoon) corn syrup 
8 tea bags (15 g) earl grey tea leaves
11 g (1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon) cornstarch
45 g (3 tablespoon/1.5 oz) cream cheese, softened
1/8 teaspoon kosher salt

STEPS
1. In a large saucepan, combine 470ml of milk with the heavy cream, sugar and corn syrup. Place over medium fire, stirring constantly until sugar dissolves.  

2. Add tea leaves and mix. Stir over the fire until mixture starts to simmer. Turn off the flame and allow leaves to steep for one hour at room temperature. 

3. In a small bowl, mix 30ml of milk with cornstarch and return to fridge. Remove cream cheese from fridge and into a large bowl. Let it come to room temperature, and whisk until smooth. Set a fine mesh sieve over the bowl and set aside.

4. When the 1 hour is up, discard the tea bags. (If using loose tea leaves, sieve the tea leaves out, and press firmly on the leaves to extract as much of the tea-infused milk as possible. Discard the tea leaves.)

5. Place the milk mixture back over a small fire and bring a boil for about 4 minutes. Remove from heat and whisk the cornstarch mixture in. Return to a boil cook over moderate heat until the mixture is thickens slightly, about 1 minute. Remove from heat. Pour the hot milk mixture through the sieve into the large bowl containing the cream cheese. Whisk until smooth. Add salt.

6. Let the mixture cool completely (an ice water bath helps) before covering bowl and place in refrigerator to chill overnight, or at least 4 hours. Pour into an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions.