jasmine tea ice cream

I love the floral note in jasmine tea, so when I saw Gourmantine's post on jasmine ice cream, I wanted to try making it!  I love David Lebovitz's green tea ice cream recipe though (from his book "The Perfect Scoop") - it has just the right amount of sweetness and creaminess - so I decided to do a combination of the two recipes.

I infused cream and milk with loose-leaf jasmine tea, strained it, and then tempered egg yolks with the warm liquid.  Then I put it back on the stove and cooked it over medium heat, until the mixture thickened into a custard.  I could have eaten the custard as-is at this point, perhaps poured over pound cake or fresh fruit, but fortunately I was able to resist, and instead let the mixture cool in the fridge.

A few hours later, the custard had thickened even more, and was now ready for the ice cream machine.  I let it churn for 25 minutes, and then put the soft ice cream in the freezer to let it set for the night.  When I tasted it the next morning (yes, I had ice cream for breakfast), I was blown away by the flavor of the jasmine, and the creaminess of the texture.  I think I might like this even better than green tea ice cream!

This ice cream was velvety smooth, unlike my green tea ice cream which had a slight grittiness to it (I had thought it might have been from the brand of green tea powder I used, which is added directly to the custard instead of steeping it with tea leaves.  I guess this proves my theory to be correct!).  In any case, I think I'll try this infusion method for earl grey ice cream too!