Homemade Coffee Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

With notes of honey, creamy cocoa, caramel, and cinnamon, I knew this coffee would make an awesome Coffee Chocolate Chip Ice Cream; I wasn’t disappointed!

When we were kids, our Mom used to come into the kitchen every single morning in her satiny purple robe. She would quietly sit down and drink two cups of coffee while she read the paper. And every morning, when the three of us kids came barreling down the hallway yelling, “Mom? Mom! MOOOOOOMMMMMM!”, she would calmly look up and say, every single time, “Don’t call me Mom until after I’ve finished my first cup of coffee.”

If we were really annoying her, which we often did, she would look up from the paper again, and calmly say, “Please don’t call me Mom. You can call me anything but Mom, until after I’ve finished this first cup of coffee.” Now, I would love to say that we behaved and walked away and let our poor Mother have some peace and quiet, but come on – we were kids and we wanted stuff like RIGHT THEN AND THERE, so we would call her “Fred” instead.

I have no idea why we picked the name “Fred”, but we did, and we took to calling “Fred” every single morning thereafter. Even now, I’m truly amazed that she didn’t lock us all in our rooms until we graduated from high school.

So imagine my surprise, when I heard myself utter those exact same words a few weeks ago. I was exhausted, stressed and just needed some quiet time. But alas, there is never any rest for the weary. So as I sat at the table with my piping hot cup of coffee in my hands, and my beloveds started in, “Mom? Mom! MOOOOOOMMMMMM!”, I calmly looked up and said, “Don’t call me Mom until after I’ve finished my first cup of coffee.”

The kids just stared at me like I’d lost my mind and innocently said, “Well then what should we call you?” I smiled, and said, “Fred. You can call me Fred.”

In case you’re wondering…the coffee that I was quietly enjoying up until that point was an incredibly delicious, organically grown blend from Wood-Fire Roasted Coffee Company in Reno, Nevada. As we try to weed out many of the processed foods in our diet and make the switch to consuming more organically-grown food, I’ve been struggling to find a good-tasting organic coffee for my husband and I. Since we drink 2-3 cups a day, finding an organic option has been on the top of my list of things to find – and the Fazenda Nossa Senhora de Fatima (Brazil) was truly fantastic.

With notes of honey, creamy cocoa, caramel, and cinnamon, I knew this coffee would also make an incredible Coffee Chocolate Chip Ice Cream for my husband and we weren’t disappointed! 

COFFEE CHOCOLATE CHIP ICE CREAM

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cups sugar
• 3 large egg yolks
• 2 teaspoons all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup organic milk
• 3/4 cup organic whole coffee beans
• 1 1/2 cups organic full-fat half-and-half
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips (if desired)

Directions:

Step 1: In a mixer, (I heart my KitchenAid Artisan Stand Mixer), beat the sugar into the egg yolks until thickened and pale yellow. Beat in flour and salt. Set aside.

Step 2: Combine the milk and coffee beans in a heavy medium saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Lower the heat, cover, and keep warm for 20 minutes.

Step 3: Remove the coffee beans with a slotted spoon. Slowly beat the warm milk into the egg yolks and sugar. Pour the entire mixture back into the pan and place over low heat. Stir constantly with a whisk or wooden spoon until the custard thickens slightly. Be careful not to let the mixture boil or the eggs will scramble. Remove from the heat and pour the hot coffee custard through a strainer into a large, clean bowl.

Step 4: Allow the custard to cool slightly, then stir in the half-and-half and vanilla. Cover and refrigerate until cold or overnight. (If you want to speed up the cooling process, set it into an ice bath. Just make sure your mixture is completely chilled before adding to the ice cream machine .)

Step 5: Stir the chilled custard, and then freeze in 1 or 2 batches in your ice cream machine  according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

Step 6: When the ice cream is semi-frozen, slowly add 1 cup of mini semi-sweet chocolate chips and let the ice cream machine  mix it in.

Step 7: When finished, the ice cream will be soft but ready to eat. For firmer ice cream, transfer to a freezer-safe container and freeze at least 2 hours.

*This recipe is adapted from The Ultimate Ice Cream Book by Bruce Weinstein.

Happy Eating,

Denine

Looking for more ice cream recipes? Here are a few of our favorites!

• S’mores Ice Cream
• Milk Stout Ice Cream
• Homemade Rocky Road Ice Cream

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