Ben and Jerry’s Coffee Heath Bar Crunch ice cream is one of my favorites. I can eat so much of it that the caffeine keeps me up at night. This imitation is delicious. The coffee flavor is slightly more subtle, but not in a bad way. Aside from that, the only difference is that I sit on the sofa eating it out of a plastic quart container instead of a paper Ben and Jerry’s pint container. Stella snagged a drop of this ice cream that fell on the floor, and she went wild. It’s that good.
To make the coffee ice cream, heat 1.5 cups of milk (I used skim), 1/2 cup of cream, 3/4 cup of sugar, 1.5 cups of whole coffee beans, and a pinch of salt over medium heat in a pot. Stir it around until the milk begins to steam, and then remove it from the heat. Cover the pot, and let the beans steep at room temperature for 1 hour.
Once the coffee beans have steeped, remove the lid from the pot, and return the pot to the stove. Heat the milk mixture again until it steams, and then remove it from the heat. In a bowl, whisk 5 egg yolks together.
Slowly whisk a few ladles of the hot milk mixture into the egg yolks to temper them. This step heats the yolks gradually to prevent them from scrambling when they are added to the hot milk.
Pour all of the egg yolk mixture into the milk mixture. Turn the heat on low, and stir the mixture constantly until it thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon. It may take anywhere from 5-10 minutes to reach this stage. Remove the pot from the heat.
Pour 1 cup of cream into a bowl. Set a strainer over the bowl, and pour the hot milk mixture through it to filter out the coffee beans. Press down on the coffee beans so that all of the good flavor gets into the ice cream base. Remove the strainer, and stir 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract and 1/2 teaspoon of instant coffee into the milk. Put the coffee mixture into the fridge to chill. To speed up the chilling process, I put an ice pack into a plastic bag and put it into the bowl.
While the mixture chills, crush up 4 Heath Bars. I used a meat mallet to smash them while they were still in their wrappers. Try to keep the chunks on the larger side. Put the Heath Bars into the freezer so that they are cold when you add them into the ice cream.
When the ice cream mixture is cold, churn it in your ice cream maker according to its instructions. When the ice cream is completely ready, mix in the chunks of Heath Bar by hand. If the ice cream hasn’t frozen enough in the ice cream maker, then the Heath Bar pieces may settle to the bottom of your container later. Transfer the ice cream to a container, and freeze it until it has hardened.
This ice cream is great in a cone or a bowl, but it’s best straight out of the container. I won’t even judge you if you don’t use a spoon. Well, maybe.
This recipe for coffee ice cream was adapted from David Lebovitz’s, The Perfect Scoop.
Shopping list:
- Milk- 1.5 cups
- Cream- 1.5 cups
- Sugar- 3/4 cup
- Whole coffee beans- 1.5 cups
- Egg yolks- 5
- Salt- pinch
- Vanilla extract- 1/2 teaspoon
- Instant coffee- 1/2 teaspoon
- Heath Bars- 4 1.4 oz. bars
what ice cream machine do you use?
This one and I love it.
This is also one of my favorites. I can’t wait to try it. Thanks so much for sharing.
Looks great. Cannot wait to try
L ove Rocki