Smoking heavy cream adds an incredible depth of flavour to frozen desserts like ice cream. It’s just the thing to balance out and enhance fresh mint leaves, sweet honey, and dark chocolate.
Why this recipe works:
- Smoking cream on its own allows you to easily determine the final smokiness of your ice cream.
- Smoke adds depth of flavour to light, fresh-tasting mint leaves, with honey acting as a bridge between them.
Note: This recipe will make more smoked cream than you need, and the exact amount of smoked cream you use is up to you. Smoked cream will keep 7 to 10 days if refrigerated. (Bonus idea: use it to churn your own smoked butter)
INGREDIENTS
For the Smoked Cream:
- Hickory or Mesquite Bradley Wood Bisquettes
- 1 Litre Full Cream
For the Ice Cream:
- 1 ½ Cups Full Cream
- 1 Cup Whole Milk
- 1 Bunch fresh Mint Leaves
- 6 Egg Yolks
- ½ Cup Sugar
- ¼ Cup Honey
- ¼ to ½ tsp Kosher Salt
- 70g Dark Chocolate, chopped very fine and chilled in freezer
DIRECTIONS
For the Smoked Cream:
- Set up your Bradley Smoker for cold smoking (leave oven side off) and load your wood bisquettes.
- Either use a Bradley Cold Smoke Adaptor and place a bottle of frozen water in the bottom of your Smoker Cabinet, or fill a shallow disposable aluminium baking pan with enough ice to come halfway up pan, and just enough water to nearly cover ice. Nest a smaller shallow disposable aluminium baking pan with at least a 2 Litre capacity into the ice bath. Set pans in smoker and add 1 Litre of cream to smaller pan. (You can still use the ice water bath when using the Cold Smoke Adaptor setup if you wish.)
- Close smoker, and smoke until cream develops a strong, but not overpowering, smoky flavour, about 1 ½ to 2 hours, stirring cream occasionally to prevent a skin from forming. Monitor temperature of cream – If the food thermometer registers above 15°C, discard ice bath and replace with a fresh one. Pour cream into an airtight container and refrigerate.
For the Ice Cream:
- Blend smoked cream with fresh cream to taste, starting with ½ Cup smoked cream and ½ Cup fresh cream and adding more of each to taste, until volume totals 2 Cups and smoky flavour is pleasant and not overpowering. Reserve additional smoked and fresh creams for another use.
- Combine diluted smoked cream with milk in a heavy-bottomed saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Remove from heat, add mint, cover, and let steep until dairy tastes very minty, 2 to 2 ½ hours.
- Whisk together egg yolks, sugar, and honey in a cleaned heavy-bottomed saucepan. Strain cream mixture into saucepan, pressing on leaves with a spoon or ladle to expel all liquid, and whisk to combine, and then place over medium-low heat. Cook, stirring frequently, until ice-cream base reaches 77°C or until a finger swiped across the back of the spoon leaves a clean line.
- Pour ice-cream base through a fine mesh strainer into an airtight container, stir in salt, and chill in an ice bath or refrigerator until it registers no more than 7°C on a food thermometer, for at least 4 hours and up to overnight. Churn in an ice-cream maker according to manufacturer’s instructions, adding chocolate during last 30 seconds of churning. Transfer ice cream to airtight container and chill in freezer for at least 4 to 5 hours before serving.
Original recipe by Max Falkowitz of Seriouseats.com – adapted slightly by Bradley Smoker New Zealand.
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