Earl Grey Ice Cream

With all of the recent royal wedding excitement, I felt that I needed to make an ice cream that felt a little royal.  I toyed with the idea of making some sort of wedding cake flavored ice cream or a flavor reminiscent of Prince William’s favorite McVities cookies.  But when I think of London and the royals I think of tea.  Earl Grey tea, with is citrus and floral notes, seemed perfect for the Spring and the name sounds royal.

Earl Grey tea is traditionally a black tea flavored with bergamot oil, a citrus fruit originating in Southeast Asia.  And yes there actually is a real Earl Grey.  The current Earl is Earl Grey the 6th, Richard Fleming George Charles Grey.  The tea is named after the second Earl Grey.  There many variations of the story of how this tea came about, but most stories acknowledge that the tea was made as a gift to the 2nd Earl Grey from a Chinese mandarin.

I hope you enjoy this ice cream as much as Earl Grey enjoyed his tea.

Earl Grey Ice Cream
Adapted from ice cream base recipe by Jeni Britton Bauer
Makes 1 quart

2 cups (500 ml) whole milk
1 Tablespoon + 1 teaspoon (11 g) cornstarch
3 Tablespoon (1.5 oz, 44 g) cream cheese, softened
1 ¼ cups (313 ml) heavy cream
2/3 cup sugar (130 gl)
1/8 cup corn syrup (30 ml)
1/8 teaspoon kosher salt
15 g loose earl grey tea leaves

Fill a large bowl with ice water. In a small bowl, mix 2 tablespoons of the milk with the cornstarch. In another large bowl, whisk the cream cheese until smooth.  Set a fine mesh sieve over the bowl and set aside.

In a large saucepan, combine the remaining milk with the heavy cream, sugar and corn syrup. Heat over medium heat until sugar dissolves.  Add tea leaves and stir to combine.  Allow leaves to steep at room temperature for one hour.  Place a fine mesh sieve over a medium bowl.  Pour tea-infused mixture through sieve.  Press down firmly on the tea leaves to extract as much of the flavor as possible.  Discard the tea leaves.

Return milk mixture to heat and bring to a boil, cook about 4 minutes. Remove from heat and gradually whisk in the cornstarch mixture. Return to a boil and cook over moderately high heat until the mixture is slightly thickened, about 1 minute. Gradually pour the hot milk mixture (through the sieve) into the cream cheese and whisk until smooth. Whisk in salt.

Set the bowl in the ice water bath, and let stand, stirring occasionally, until cool, about 20 minutes.  Cover bowl and place in refrigerator to fully chill, at least 2 hours.

Chill the mixture thoroughly (at least 4 hours or overnight). Once chilled, pour into an ice cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturer’s instructions.  Place plastic or parchment over ice cream (to prevent ice crystals) and freeze until firm, at least 4 hours.