Coffee Ice Cream With an Extra Kick of Caffeine

Finally: An Ice Cream Worthy of Your Coffee

Smooth. Rich. Creamy. A delightfully full java flavor, combined with the perfect amount of sweetness. Those are just some of the sensations your mouth will feel when you bite into this Coffee Ice Cream recipe for the first time.

But that’s just the beginning. Biting into this DIY dessert is like stepping through a vortex into a parallel universe where anything is possible. Because what starts with this explosion of flavor ends with a body buzz you won’t object to.

That’s the delightful side effect of cooking with Death Wish Coffee. You wind up with a dessert Tony Stark would be proud of. Like his Iron Man armor, this coffee ice cream is equal parts gonzo and genius—and the result is nearly invincible.

Steep Tight, My Little Pretties

How can we pull that hearty coffee flavor—and importantly, the extra kick of caffeine—and infuse it into ice cream? By using a method called steeping.

You may be familiar, but if not, it’s super simple. When you steep, you simply place a solid into a liquid, which softens the solid while naturally extracting the flavors. Steeping grain to make beer is another notable use of the technique. In order to create this caffeinated coffee ice cream, you’ll steep Death Wish Coffee in a mixture of heated milk and cream.

We’ll admit it: At first, we winced at the thought of using those beautiful black talismans of bold taste and bursts of caffeine for something other than creating a mighty mug of java. And looking down at the beans in the pot, we felt a momentary pang of sadness—or was that a teardrop?—as the poor little guys cooked away inside the milky mix.

But know this: The story has a happy ending. When we tasted the first bite of this ice cream, we knew the beans’ sacrifice was not in vain. Their flavor lives on, fusing itself into the creamy base of an unbelievably delectable dessert.

Coffee Ice Cream Recipe

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups whole milk
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 cups Death Wish Coffee, whole beans 
• Pinch salt
• 1 1/2 cups heavy cream, divided
• 5 large egg yolks
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon Death Wish Coffee, finely ground (press grinds through a fine mesh sieve)

Directions:

1. Steep the milk with the sugar, coffee beans, salt and cream: 

Heat the milk, sugar, whole coffee beans, salt and 1/2 cup of the cream in a medium saucepan until it is quite warm and steamy but not boiling. Once the mixture is warm, cover, remove from the heat and let steep at room temperature for 1 hour.

2. Set the remaining cream into a bowl over an ice bath with a sieve:

Pour the remaining 1 cup of cream into a medium metal bowl and set it in a large bowl full of ice. Set a mesh strainer on top of the bowls. Set aside.

3. Temper the egg yolks:

Reheat the milk and coffee mixture on medium heat until it's hot and steamy again (not boiling!). In a separate bowl, whisk the egg yolks together. Slowly pour the heated milk and coffee mixture into the egg yolks, whisking constantly so that the egg yolks are tempered by the warm milk, but not cooked by it. Scrape the warmed egg yolks back into the saucepan.

4. Heat egg milk coffee mixture until it thickens:

Stir the custard mixture constantly over medium heat with a heatproof, flat-bottomed spatula, scraping the bottom as you stir, until the mixture thickens and coats the spatula so that you can run your finger across the coating and have the coating not run. This can take about 10 minutes.

5. Strain the custard:

Pour the custard through the strainer and stir it into the cream that's set over ice. Press on the coffee beans in the strainer to extract as much of the coffee flavor as possible. Then discard the beans. Mix in the vanilla and finely ground coffee and stir until cool.

6. Chill and process in ice cream maker: 

Chill the mixture thoroughly in the refrigerator, then freeze it in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions.

Calories: 305

Fat: 21 grams

Carbohydrates: 23 grams

Protein: 7 grams

*Nutritional information is only an estimate.

Put your foot on the accelerator and enjoy this tasty DIY Ice Cream Coffee recipe that offers an extra-special kick of caffeine. We promise—you won't want to share it.

Related: What The Affogato?