Recipe Video - https://youtu.be/CG6JJD1HWhg
Ingredients:
- 165g Coffee Maple Syrup - https://youtu.be/se_mFumNvYM
- 100g Brown Sugar
- 180g Heavy Cream
- 750g (600-500g used) Whole Milk
- 80-60g Coarsely Ground Coffee Beans
- 3 Egg Yolks
- Salt to taste
- (Optional) Aromatic Bitters to taste
Equipment: coffee grinder, stove, sous vide setup, ice cream machine.
Start by coarsely grinding your coffee beans and then sifting out any fine particles, any dark or medium roast should work. You want at least 60g of coffee grounds to infuse into 750mL/3 cups of whole milk. (If you’re making your coffee infused maple syrup directly before making the gelato, you can use the leftover Maple coffee grounds as upto 50% of the coffee grounds used for infusing your milk.) Simmer the milk with the coffee for about 15-20 minutes, tasting until it reaches the desired strength. I recommend infusing until it is almost unpleasantly bitter to counteract how much sugar is in this recipe. Once your milk is at the desired strength, strain it through either cheesecloth or a mesh strainer bag. Your ideal yield should be between 600-500g or mL but if you’re short, top it off with some fresh milk.
While it’s still warm, stir in your brown sugar and your coffee infused maple until everything is dissolved. You can then add your cream and a generous pinch of salt. Taste your ice cream base and assess whether it needs some additional salt (coffee and other bitter flavors can be greatly enhanced with a little extra salt) or even a tablespoon or two of additional brown sugar. Remember that when you’re assessing the balance of your ice cream, sweetness and certain other flavors are going to be very reduce once the mixture is frozen. To add some subtle complexity, I also recommend adding a few dashes of aromatic cocktail bitters, but this is optional. Once you are happy with the flavor, let the mixture cool down a little bit before thoroughly incorporating three egg yolks.
Now it’s time to cook your ice cream base. This can be done by the traditional method on the stove but I highly recommend cooking it sous vide. Place your ice cream base in a jar or heat resistant plastic bag and cook at 65 Celsius for about 45 minutes. You then want to let your mixture cool down to room temperature before placing in the fridge, preferably letting it chill overnight. Then you need to churn your mixture in an ice cream machine until thick and mostly frozen. You can enjoy some of the gelato right out of the machine, but for most setups the texture will be greatly improved by letting the gelato set in the freezer for at least a few hours if not overnight. Once fully frozen you can put it in the fridge for 10 minutes just before serving, in order to make it easier to scoop.
