Ginger Ice Cream

Yields about 1 quart
Total Price: NY $ 5.56 (with one leftover egg and 5 leftover egg whites)
Price per scoop: NY $0.46


This recipe makes a custard-style ice cream, which isn’t my favorite but which the LBUH adores. Since we had leftover egg yolks, I decided to make this for him. The ginger makes this sweetly spicy, but still relatively mild. A great after dinner dessert, particularly as ginger is said to aid in digestion. As you’d expect for something made with egg yolks and heavy cream, this dish is more decadent than its is diet-friendly. But it still has lots of vitamins and minerals, some protein and calcium, and as long as you don’t scarf down the whole quart (Hey! LBUH, back away from the freezer! Leave the spoon where I can see it!), its not entirely out of place on a website devoted in part to healthy eating. This is delicious topped with crumbled ginger snaps.

(UPDATE: We've been Slashfooded! "Ginger Ice Cream - Feast Your Eyes")

Ingredients

• Small knob (about 3 inches) fresh ginger (NY $0.58)
• 1 cup milk, whatever kind you keep on hand (NY $0.30)
• 2 cups heavy cream (NY $2.49)
• 5 egg yolks (NY $2.19 for half dozen)
• ¾ cup sugar (staple)
• Pinch of salt (staple)
• Optional: chopped crystallized ginger (staple: if you don’t have any already, I wouldn’t bother buying just for this recipe)

Directions
Scrub the outside of the ginger thoroughly, but there's no need to peel. Slice the ginger root in half lengthwise. Rest each cut side down your cutting board for stability, then slice lengthwise into very thin long slices.

Put the slices in your saucepan and add about two inches of water. The ginger slices should be covered and have a little less than an extra inch of water to float in.

Blanch the slices by bringing the water to a boil, and then continue bowling for approx. two minutes.


Pour the ginger root into a colander to remove the water, and then return the ginger to the saucepan.

Add the sugar, salt, milk, and half of the cream to the saucepan and reheat, being careful not to bring to a boil. When the mixture is warm, remove it from the heat and let it sit covered for at least an hour so the solution absorbs the flavor from the ginger.

When the hour is almost up, pour the rest of your cream and the crushed crystallized ginger into a large bowl, place a mesh strainer on top, and place the bowl in an ice bath.*

Reheat the saucepan containing the milk/cream/ginger solution. Using a slotted spoon, scoop out the ginger slices.**

In a medium bowl, whisk the egg yolks together, and then slowly pour in the contents of the saucepan while continuing to whisk the eggs.

Pour the mixture back into the saucepan and reheat over low to medium heat. Continuously stir with a spatula, making sure that the egg/milk solution does not stick to the sides and bottom of the saucepan. Keep stirring and scraping the sides until the mixture begins to thicken.

Once the mixture is evenly coating your spatula, pour it through the mesh strainer into the large bowl containing the rest of your cream. While the bowl is in the ice bath, stir the mixture until it is cool.

Place the mixture in your refrigerator and chill for about 1 hour, then freeze in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s directions.

Adapted from David Lebovitz, Perfect Scoop: Ice Creams, Sorbets, Granitas, and Sweet Accompaniments

*I filled the kitchen sink with a mixture of ice cubes and enough cold water so that the bottom half of the bowl was submerged.
** You can try nibbling on these while you continue to make the ice cream: the LBUH loved these, although I did not.


Nutrition Facts per scoop

Calories 197.2	Vitamin B-12 2.9 %	Manganese 0.1 %
Total Fat 15.1 g	Vitamin B-6 1.2 %	Niacin 0.2 %
Cholesterol 71.8 mg	Vitamin C 0.8 %	Pantothenic Acid 2.1 %
Sodium 39.3 mg	Vitamin D 5.5 %	Phosphorus 5.1 %
Potassium 67.5 mg	Vitamin E 1.5 %	Riboflavin 4.8 %
Total Carbohydrate 14.7 g	Calcium 5.3 %	Selenium 2.1 %
Fiber 0.0g	Copper 0.3 %	Thiamin 1.2 %
Sugars 12.5 g	Folate 1.2 %	Zinc 1..4 %
Protein 1.7 g	Iron 0.3 %
Vitamin A 12.1 %	Magnesium 1.3 %