As you would expect, in the winter, with its snowbanks and subfreezing temperatures, sales of our ice cream decline as fewer people are craving anything cold, never mind frozen. We get it—although if left to our own devices, we can, and do, eat ice cream year-round.
To make ice cream sound more enticing during the colder months, we create seasonally driven, limited-edition batches to mark the holiday season: Pumpkin and Apple Crumble with Calvados and Crème Fraîche for Thanksgiving and this Eggnog Ice Cream for Christmas. Grinding all the spices fresh makes this ice cream truly shine. Because the cold dulls flavors a bit, you want the freshest spices ground right before you need them for the biggest flavor impact.
MAKES ABOUT 1 QUART
2 cups heavy cream
1 cup whole milk
½ cup plus 2 tablespoons (125 grams) sugar
2 teaspoons freshly grated nutmeg
½ teaspoon freshly ground Sichuan pepper
¼ teaspoon freshly ground allspice
½ plump vanilla bean, split lengthwise and seeds scraped out
¾ teaspoon (3 grams) kosher salt
8 large egg yolks
2 tablespoons rum, bourbon, or regular or apple brandy
1. Pour the cream and 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). Whisk in ½ cup (100 grams) of the sugar, the nutmeg, pepper, allspice, vanilla bean seeds and pod, and salt and stir until the sugar and salt have dissolved. Warm the mixture until you see steam rising from the top. Remove the vanilla bean pod (see for ideas on what you can do with it).
2. Meanwhile, prepare an ice bath in a large bowl and set another bowl over it. Set aside.
3. In a medium bowl, with a kitchen towel underneath it to prevent slipping, whisk together the egg yolks with the remaining 2 tablespoons (25 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.
4. Strain the custard into the bowl sitting over the prepared ice bath and add the rum. Stir for 3 to 5 minutes, or until the custard has cooled. Transfer the custard to a quart-size container, cover, and refrigerate for at least 4 hours or, preferably, overnight.
5. 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.