Thai Tea Ice Cream

I normally keep the necessary items in my kitchen to make ice cream: milk, cream, eggs, and sugar. But always in search of new flavors, I scavenge through my spices and pantry for ideas for ice creams I've yet to make. This is how this Thai Tea Ice Cream came together.

It makes sense, too. In Thai restaurants Thai Tea is mixed with sugar and condensed milk, making it sweet and creamy, just like in ice cream. It was meant to be.

Thai Tea Ice Cream:

250ml Milk 250ml Heavy cream 120g Sugar, divided 1 pinch of Salt 15g Thai tea mix, (used for making thai iced tea) *see note 6 Egg yolks In a medium size pot, add the milk, cream, half of the sugar, salt, and the tea. Heat gently on medium heat, stirring in the sugar to dissolve until the mixture is just scalded. Then turn off the heat and allow the tea to steep 5 minutes. In the meantime, in a medium sized mixing bowl, whisk the yolks with the remaining sugar until well combined and lightened in color. Bring the milk mixture back to a near boil over, remove it from the heat, and ladle a little over the yolks while whisking. Add more liquid in stages until it is all combined. Then, pour the mixture back into the pot and using a rubber spatula, heat the mixture to 85C (185F), at which point the mixture with thicken and become a crème anglaise. Be sure to continuously mix during this time, so nothing burns to the bottom of the pot. Once you have made your Thai Tea crème anglaise, remove the pot from the heat and strain it into a bowl, removing the tea leaves.

Chill over an ice bath to reduce the temperature before putting it into your ice cream maker. Once churned, put your ice cream into a container and place it into the freezer to harden before eating.

* Note: Thai Tea mix is a blend of black tea and spices