The fourth classic
Cold-steeped coffee
Whole beans left to steep in cold cream overnight, then strained out. You get every bit of the aroma and none of the bitterness that brewed coffee brings to ice cream.
- Makes about 1 litre
- 25 min hands-on
- Steep 12–24 hrs
- Churn 20–30 min
- Ice cream maker needed
Ingredients
- 100 gabout 1 cup whole coffee beans, coarsely crushed
- 500 ml2 cups whole milk
- 300 ml1¼ cups double cream (heavy cream)
- 140 g⅔ cup caster sugar
- 4 large egg yolks
- A good pinch of fine salt
Method
Start the day before: the beans need a night in the fridge with the dairy.
- Crush the beans coarsely: a few pulses in a grinder, or a rolling pin and a tea towel. You want cracked beans, not powder.
- Put them in a jar with the milk and cream, stir, and refrigerate for 12 to 24 hours.
- Strain through a fine sieve, pressing the beans gently to release the liquid they have soaked up. Top up with a little milk if you have less than 750 ml.
- Warm the infused dairy with half the sugar and the salt until steaming.
- Whisk the yolks with the remaining sugar, then pour in a ladleful of the hot dairy in a thin stream, whisking hard. Return everything to the pan.
- Cook over a low to medium heat, stirring constantly, to 77–82°C (170–180°F), until it coats the back of the spatula.
- Strain into a cold bowl, chill for at least 4 hours, then churn for 20–30 minutes and freeze for 4 hours.
Worth knowing
- Cold steeping is slower and kinder. Hot steeping works in an hour, but pulls out more tannin along with the flavour.
- Use beans you would drink. A medium roast gives caramel and nut notes; a dark roast reads almost smoky in ice cream.
- Decaf behaves identically, which matters if pudding is at eight o’clock.
- Do not grind fine. Powder slips through the sieve and makes the ice cream sandy.
Make it yours
Five ways to change it
Mocha
Stir 60 g chopped dark chocolate into the hot custard at the straining stage.
Coffee toffee crunch
Fold 100 g of smashed honeycomb through at the end of churning.
Vietnamese style
Replace 100 ml of the milk with sweetened condensed milk and drop the sugar to 100 g.
Cardamom coffee
Steep six crushed cardamom pods with the beans.
Espresso ripple
Layer with a syrup made from 4 tbsp strong espresso boiled with 4 tbsp sugar.
If it goes wrong
Rescue remedies
The coffee flavour is faint
Either the steep was short or the beans were stale. Give it the full 24 hours, or stir a teaspoon of instant espresso into the warm custard to lift it.
It tastes bitter
Ground too fine, steeped too warm, or the beans were pressed too hard in the sieve. Be gentle at step 3.
My sieve lets grounds through
Line it with a coffee filter or a piece of muslin. Slower, but perfectly clean.
Can I use ready-made coffee?
You can add 100 ml of strong espresso to the base, but you are adding water as well as flavour, so expect a firmer, icier result.