Lynn and I have both become coffee snobs, so it is only natural to make coffee ice cream. It took me a long time to get around to it since we have children. I usually end up making things that they can have rather than something for us. Even when I finally got around to making coffee ice cream, I still made some vanilla for the kids to have.
When preparing ice cream it is important to use the best ingredients you can. This recipe uses instant coffee. For years my only experience with instant coffee was Taster’s Choice. Let’s just say, I was not impressed. Thanks to the US Navy, I had the opportunity to go to South Korea and tried some of the instant coffee there. The flavor was so much better; it actually tasted like coffee.
Now we buy all of our instant coffee from local Asian food markets. There are usually many choices there. One of our favorites is Trung Nguyen G7 Pure Black instant coffee. Trung Nguyen is a well-known Vietnamese coffee company. If you do not have an Asian store near you, the prices aren’t too bad on Amazon. I believe Starbucks also makes some decent instant coffee, but it does cost a lot more.
Coffee Ice Cream
Ingredients
- 1 cup milk
- 2 cup heavy cream
- 3/4 cup white sugar
- 2 tbsp instant coffee powder
- 1 tbsp vanilla
Instructions
- Combine the milk and sugar in a small saucepan. Bring to just a simmer over medium heat. Remove from heat.
- Whisk in instant coffee powder until well-combined.
- In a medium-sized bowl, combine the milk and coffee mixture with heavy cream. Stir in the vanilla.
- Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 4 hours or overnight if possible.
- Churn the ice cream according to your ice cream maker’s instructions. Serve the ice cream immediately for a soft-serve ice cream or freeze it until the desired consistency.
The texture of the coffee ice cream was a bit different than I was expecting. I had been planning to buy a bag of ice at the corner store near our house but they were all out. It was one of our 100+ degree days so I guess ice was very popular that day. So I went with the amount of ice we had, which ended up not being enough. I tried a few more places near us for ice, but they were all out of ice there too.
The coffee ice cream wasn’t quite finished churning but I had to go with it the way it was since there was no ice to be found. The ice cream was still soft when it went into the freezer and ended up being a little bit icy when it was time to scoop it.
The taste was definitely what I was expecting though! Lots of coffee flavor. I will have to make this ice cream again, but next time, be sure to have enough ice!
-Joshua
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