Maple Ice-Cream

Those of you that are following us on facebook would know that Sarah and I were most excited a couple of days ago when our new red ice-cream machine arrived. We have had an ice-cream machine for 12 years but it “died” about 6 months ago. We are big ice-cream eaters in our family and have missed not being able to concoct our own flavours.

Sarah volunteered to make the first batch. She has been wanting to replicate some delicious maple ice-cream that we tasted in Japan earlier in the year. She made a maple flavoured ice-cream and folded some chopped shortbread biscuits (cookies) through the mixture which added some texture and reduced the sweetness – it was sublime.

Makes about 1.5 Litres

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup pure maple syrup
• 1 1/2 cup milk
• 1 1/2 cup whipping cream
• pinch of salt
• 4 large egg yolks
• 200 g shortbread biscuits (cookies), chopped into small pieces

1. In a medium saucepan over moderate heat, boil the maple syrup until reduced slightly, about 5 minutes.
2. Lower the heat and stir in the milk, cream, and salt.
3. Heat until just under a boil (you will see bubbles along the edges of the saucepan).
4. Remove from heat.
5. In a medium bowl, whisk the egg yolks. Slowly add a few tablespoons  of the hot milk mixture into the yolks, whisking constantly until well combined.
6. Add the yolks back to the rest of the milk, whisking constantly.
7. Cook the mixture over medium-low heat until thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Be careful that it doesn’t boil.
8. Strain the mixture through a sieve into a bowl.
9. Chill until very cold, at least 4 hours or overnight.
10. Freeze in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions. When the ice-cream is nearly churned, add the small biscuit pieces through the top of the machine until combined.