Licorice Ice Cream

Adapted from A Sweet Quartet by Fran Gage (North Point Press, 2002) and Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream Desserts by Jeni Britton Bauer (Artisan, 2014)

I started making all my own ice cream when I moved to the country from New York City ten years ago. I mostly make one particular flavor—Sweet Cream—adapted from Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream Desserts by Jeni Britton Bauer, and I always keep a pint of it in the freezer.

But this ice cream is something different: delicate, soft buff in color, and gently elusive in flavor. Some people wouldn’t recognize it as licorice. It flummoxes them: Is this gingerbread? Is it chai? So I think it’s entirely possible that even people who claim not to like licorice might enjoy this, with its subtle hint of anise.

Serves 1 quart

600g whole milk
336g heavy cream
150g granulated sugar (I use Domino Golden Sugar)
3 tablespoons Lyle’s Golden Syrup (you could use corn syrup, but I don’t)
14g Bob’s Red Mill Tapioca Flour (you could use cornstarch, but I don’t)
56g cream cheese
⅛ teaspoon fine sea salt
2 Yogi brand Egyptian Licorice Tea bags

Prep Steps

Weigh the tapioca flour or cornstarch into a very small prep bowl.

Weigh the 56g of cream cheese onto a small plate. Add the sea salt to the top of the cream cheese and press it in using the tines of a fork. Transfer the salted cream cheese to a container you can later blend some of the hot mixture into. (I use a tall glass measuring beaker that I have for when I need to measure milliliters because I don’t like to use the plastic container that came with my immersion blender with hot liquids.)

Measure the Lyle’s Golden Syrup into a small glass (I use a 5-ounce measure). You can microwave it for about 30 seconds if you want it to pour more easily.

Cook the Base

I use a 3-quart saucier here as it’s easy to stir the mixture with its rounded bottom and flared sides. Pour the milk into the pan you are using and scoop out a small amount and mix it thoroughly with the tapioca flour in the small prep bowl. Set this slurry aside.

Add the cream, sugar, and Lyle’s to the milk in the saucepan. Stir, and bring to a low boil. Boil gently for 4 minutes, stirring constantly. Turn off the heat. Move the pan to a cool burner. Remove the tags from the tea bags, add them to the mixture, and let steep for 15 minutes.

At the end of the steeping time, remove the tea bags and squeeze them gently into the mixture to extract all the flavor.

Stir the tapioca slurry again to ensure it’s smooth, then add it to the pan and whisk it in. Move the pan back to the original burner and bring back to a low boil, stirring constantly, and boil for one minute. Remove from the heat immediately.

Blend and Chill

Add a little of the hot mixture to the salted cream cheese in the beaker and blend until smooth. (An immersion blender works well here.) Return that mixture to the pan and stir to combine. Strain the whole mixture through a fine sieve into an 8-cup Pyrex measuring cup or other easy-pour container.

Transfer the base to a lidded container. (You could use a well-sealed zip-top bag, but I don’t.) Place it in an ice bath: I use a large stainless bowl, add cold water around the container of mixture without letting it spill in, and chill it down with reusable ice packs rather than ice cubes, which would also work well and would be easy if you have an ice maker; I do not.

Once cool, refrigerate the mixture overnight to cure.

Spin and Store

The next day, spin the chilled base in your ice cream machine according to manufacturer’s instructions.

Pack the finished ice cream into two pint-size cardboard containers. (I cut 6-inch parchment circles to place on top before sealing.)

Let the ice cream firm in the freezer for at least 8 hours before serving.