How to Make Acorn Ice Cream

Sweet candied acorns and creamy ice cream is a pair to delight the senses. Just in time for the Acorn Festival is this quick, yet sublime recipe to take advantage of the wonderful flavors of acorns.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Things You’ll Need:

• Above ingredients
• Medium sauce pan
• medium bowl
• Whisk
• Ice cream maker
• ¼ c candied acorns
• 2 c whole milk
• 2/3 c heavy cream
• 3 large egg yolks
• ½ c sugar
• ½ tsp almond extract

1. In a food processor, pulse the acorns until they start becoming a fine powder. Leave some pieces slightly larger for texture in the ice cream. Set aside.
2. In a large-sized sauce pan, combine the milk, cream, almond extract and acorns. Mix well. Heat the pan over medium-high heat until the milk just begins to boil. Take the pan off the heat when the milk starts to boil.
3. In a large bowl, add the egg yolks and whisk well. Add the sugar and whisk well until the mixture becomes light and changes to a slightly lighter yellow hue.
4. Slowly add ¼-cup of the milk mixture to the egg mixture. Stir well while adding the milk. This will raise the temperature of the eggs without curdling them.
5. Slowly add the rest of the milk mixture to the eggs, continually stirring the mixture.
6. Once the two mixtures are thoroughly combined, return the mixture to the sauce pan and slowly heat the mixture over medium-low heat.
7. Continually stir the heating custard until the mixture begins to thicken and can coat the back of a metal spoon, approximately three minutes. If the mixture starts to bubble, immediately turn the heat down. If the custard boils, you must throw it out and start from scratch.
8. When the custard has thickened, take it off the heat and transfer it to a clean large bowl and refrigerate it until it cools down.
9. Once the custard is cool, transfer it to a ice cream machine and follow the directions to finish making the ice cream.

Tips & Warnings

• You might consider infusing the milk with the acorns before making the mixture for a more powerful flavor. To do this, heat the milk to just below boiling and add the acorns. Take the milk mixture off the heat and let it infuse for approximately ten minutes. Use the milk as you would in the recipe.
• Refer to the related articles for the candied acorn recipe.