How to make coffee ice cream without condensed milk

Homemade coffee ice cream recipe using milk and cream infused with whole coffee beans.

I love coffee ice cream, but rarely get it because the caffeine does a number on me. If I have coffee or even mocha ice cream after dinner I'm jittery until 3 am.

So, when I opened David Lebovitz's book, The Perfect Scoop and found a recipe for coffee ice cream, the ice cream maker bowl immediately went into the freezer.

If you make your own coffee ice cream, you can make it with decaffeinated beans! No late night jitters. Safe for kids.

David has provided helpful advice for me on practically every ice cream recipe on this site, which have all turned out great, so it's no wonder that his new book's recipes are spot on. I think this is the best coffee ice cream I've ever had.

• 1 1/2 cups whole milk

• 3/4 cup sugar

• 1 1/2 cups whole coffee beans (decaf unless you want the caffeine in your ice cream)

• Pinch salt

• 1 1/2 cups heavy cream

• 5 large egg yolks

• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

• 1/4 teaspoon finely ground coffee (press grinds through a fine mesh sieve)

1. Steep milk with 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.

   Elise Bauer Elise Bauer

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

   Pour the remaining 1 cup of cream into a medium size metal bowl, set on ice over a larger bowl. 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 again hot and steamy (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.

   Elise Bauer

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. Pour the custard through the strainer and stir it into the cream:

   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.

   Elise Bauer Elise Bauer

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.

   Elise Bauer

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Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate. In cases where multiple ingredient alternatives are given, the first listed is calculated for nutrition. Garnishes and optional ingredients are not included.