Summer time!
Sorry for the bad 'joke'. I quote my friend for this...but it did make me laugh! But back to the point. Its summer time, its time for the beach, time for 10 hours of sleep, which also means time for ice cream!
I've had an ice cream maker at home for ages, but I never really tried making proper ice cream until last summer. I tried out many new things last summer because my holiday was super long (since I just had my GCSE exams) and had nothing much to do, so I baked a lot and tried many new things!
The first flavour of ice cream up this year is something special that I haven't tried before - Goma (Black Sesame) Ice Cream. This Japanese flavour gives off a rich nutty aroma, contrasting with the creamy texture of the ice cream. Two forms of black sesame is used to enhance the flavour - sesame paste and ground sesame seeds, which resulted into an ice cream that is way more flavourful than the store-bought ones. Even my mum who doesn't have much of a sweet tooth loved it!
Pardon me for the poor photos - it's actually really hard to take good photos of ice cream here because of the hot and humid weather (even the aircon doesn't help much). But do try this ice cream flavour - it's just so good. See, the bowl was licked clean precisely one minute after the photo shoot!Goma (black sesame) Ice Cream
Adapted from Ice Cream Book, by Junko Fukuda (original recipe in Chinese)
60g Black sesame paste
180ml Milk
2 Egg yolks
70g + 2tbsp sugar (measure separately)
120ml Whipping cream
1tbsp Ground black sesame seeds
1. In a large bowl, whisk together 2 tbsp of sugar with the black sesame paste until smooth.
2. In a separate large bowl, whisk together 70g sugar and the egg yolks until pale yellow.
3. Heat the milk in a small saucepan until just about to boil.
4. Mix the yolks and the milk, adding the milk in small portions (so you don't end up with scrambled eggs!)
5. Pour the mixture (the custard) back into the pan. Heat the mixture over low heat, stirring constantly until the mixture thickens - it should coat the back of a wooden spoon.
6. Strain the custard. Mix the custard with the black sesame mixture, adding the custard in small portions (or the mixture will separate).
7. Place the bowl over an ice bath to cool, stirring occasionally. Chill the mixture until thoroughly cold.
8. Mix the cream and ground sesame seeds into the cold ice cream mixture.
9. Churn the ice cream in an ice cream maker, for around 20 minutes (time may differ according to your machine).
10. Transfer to an air tight container and chill until ice cream sets.
Click here to see the ice cream maker I have (links to amazon). I wouldn't recommend it though, because for some reason the lid doesn't fit on properly to the bottom canister, and the whole top bit wobbles when I switch the machine on.
This was the brand of sesame paste I used. I think I'll use the remaining to make a black sesame chiffon cake.
