Years ago, I got to live in Italy with an Italian family for six months. There was a gelateria by the train station in town, and I quickly learned that gelaterias near train stations or monuments were just giant tourist traps serving subpar gelato—a disappointing lesson, since I fancied all gelato in Italy to be a thing of beauty. Like everywhere else, Italy has good food worth seeking out and bad food where the establishments don’t rely on repeat service since tourist traffic is so high.
To rectify the sad gelato situation, Giulio, the son of my host family, took me on his bike to this place hidden deep in the suburbs of Rome; it was a gelateria, but one without a display case (a very good sign!)—only silver tins. I remember getting a scoop of crema di riso simply because it sounded so unusual. It was lovely: Rice pudding, as interpreted in gelato, was just incredible. And since then, I’ve been deeply in love with the flavor.
When we started testing crema di riso ice cream, we loved the results we were getting—they were perfectly reminiscent of my memories of Italy. We were also pretty smitten with kheer, an Indian dessert made with rice, milk, and spices, and we thought that combining the idea of crema di riso with the flavors of kheer might work pretty well. You might wonder how an ice cream studded with rice would be a good idea, but we urge you to give it a try; we’re pretty confident that this might become one of your all-time favorite flavors.
MAKES ABOUT 1 QUART
1 cup (210 grams) jasmine rice
1½ cups whole milk
¾ cup (150 grams) sugar
1 dried bay leaf
½ teaspoon ground cardamom
½ plump vanilla bean, split lengthwise and seeds scraped out
¼ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
Kosher salt
2 cups heavy cream
8 large egg yolks
1. Place the rice in a saucepan and add enough water to cover. Bring the water to a boil over high heat, then reduce the heat to low and simmer the rice until softened, 6 to 7 minutes. Drain the rice and return it to the pan. Add 1 cup of the milk, ½ cup (100 grams) of the sugar, the bay leaf, cardamom, vanilla bean pod and seeds, nutmeg, and a pinch of salt. Bring to a simmer over medium heat, then reduce the heat to low and simmer, uncovered, until the rice is fully cooked and the milk has mostly been absorbed, about 25 minutes. Remove from the heat and set aside to cool completely. Transfer to an airtight container and refrigerate until ready to use.
2. Pour the heavy cream and the remaining ½ cup milk into a double boiler or a heatproof bowl set over a saucepan of gently simmering water (the bottom of the bowl should not touch the water). Add a pinch of salt and stir until it has dissolved. Warm the mixture until you see steam rising from the top.
3. Meanwhile, prepare an ice bath in a large bowl and set another bowl over it. Set aside.
4. In a medium bowl, with a kitchen towel underneath it to prevent slipping, whisk together the egg yolks with the remaining ¼ cup (50 grams) sugar until uniform. While whisking, add a splash of the hot dairy mixture to the yolks. Continue to add the dairy mixture, whisking it in bit by bit, until you’ve added about half. Add the yolk mixture to the remaining dairy mixture in the double boiler. Set the heat under the double boiler to medium and cook the custard, stirring continuously with a wooden spoon and reducing the heat to medium-low as necessary, until steam begins to rise from the surface and the custard thickens enough to coat the back of the spoon. Hold the spoon horizontally and run your finger through the custard. If the trail left by your finger stays separated, the custard is ready to be cooled.
5. Strain the custard into the bowl sitting over the prepared ice bath and stir for 3 to 5 minutes, or until the custard has cooled. Fold in the cooked rice, and transfer the custard to a quart-size container, cover, and refrigerate for at least 4 hours or, preferably, overnight.
6. Pour the chilled custard into an ice cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Place the container in which you refrigerated the custard in the freezer so you can use it to store the finished ice cream. Churn the ice cream until the texture resembles “soft serve.” Transfer the ice cream to the chilled storage container and freeze until hardened to your desired consistency. Alternatively, you can serve it immediately—it will be the consistency of gelato. The ice cream will keep, frozen, for up to 7 days.
ben’s note When par cooking your rice, cook it in water as we recommend, rather than in milk. Something about milk proteins toughens the rice, making it take much, much longer to cook. We learned this the hard way, of course, and wanted to save you some frustration (and time!).