CEYLON CINNAMON ICE CREAM
Ben and Pete first came across cinnamon ice cream in a little beach town in Mexico while on vacation. They were in an arid region, far from any land suitable for dairy farming, so the ice cream was made with powdered milk and UHT boxed cream—and still, it was delicious! While you might not think of a spice-flavored ice cream as something refreshing in the height of summer—maybe you prefer Strawberry Ice Cream or Lemon Sorbet—but perhaps because of its woodsy, floral notes, cinnamon ice cream is cooling and rejuvenating on a sweltering day. I was skeptical at first, until I tried it—and it’s true.
In Mexico, they mostly grow the Ceylon variety of cinnamon, which has a milder and more floral flavor than its Vietnamese or Chinese counterpart—it’s considered to be true cinnamon rather than its cousin, cassia, which is what we know in the United States as cinnamon. On hot summer days, Ben will frequently drop in on our Greenpoint store and get a scoop of cinnamon and a scoop of Chocolate Ice Cream with Hot Fudge Sauce, cocoa nibs, and a pinch of New Mexican Hatch chile powder—it’s bliss.
MAKES ABOUT 1 QUART
1½ cups heavy cream
1½ cups whole milk
8 3-inch cinnamon quills (about 20 grams), crushed
¾ cup (150 grams) sugar
¼ teaspoon (1 gram) kosher salt
6 large egg yolks
1 tablespoon (4 grams) ground cinnamon, preferably from Ceylon
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). Add the cinnamon quills, whisk in ½ cup (100 grams) of the sugar and the salt, and stir until the sugar and salt have dissolved. Warm the mixture until you see steam rising from the top. Remove from the heat and strain the mixture into a bowl to remove the cinnamon quills. Return the dairy mixture to the double boiler.
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 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.
4. Strain the custard into the bowl sitting over the prepared ice bath. Whisk in the ground cinnamon and 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.
ben’s note If you can, steep the cinnamon quills in the dairy mixture (the cream and milk) overnight in the fridge—you’ll get an even deeper flavor.
