Creme Brulee Frozen Custard

Yesterday was officially the last day of summer and as it comes to an end and the cooler temperatures, changing leaves, and pots of soup take the place of bare feet, warm summer nights, and ice cream, I couldn't help myself and had to post one last recipe for the ice cream we ate on our last Sunday of our 12 week run of "Smithson's Ice Cream Sundays".

We all had our favorites (although it was a bit hard to choose)....

Mine-Sour Cream Cherry
Todd's-Peanut Butter
Noah's-Vanilla
Preston's-Coffee
Stella's-Peanut Butter

I decided that to end this sweet ride we needed to go out with a bang.  I decided to make a crème brulee frozen custard and when an ice cream recipe calls for 12 egg yolks in the custard base and then is finished with coarse sugar sprinkled on top of the frozen ice cream and then torched until crisp, crackly and borderline burnt, it's going to be really, really great and really, really creamy...and it was. (We kept trying to sprinkle more sugar on top to torch partly because using the torch was quite fun and partly because the crackly sugar topping was so dang good!)

 

Crème Brulee Frozen Custard

 

12 egg yolks

1 cup superfine sugar, divided (see note)

1/2 teaspoon fine grain salt

1 vanilla bean, scraped

2 cups cold heavy cream

1 cup cold whole milk

1/2 -3/4 cup turbinado sugar (raw sugar)

 

In a saucepan combine, cream, whole milk, 1/2 cup sugar, and vanilla seeds and pod.  Place over medium-low heat and simmer until sugar is dissolved.

 

In a mixing bowl whisk together egg yolks, 1/2 cup sugar, and salt.  Whisk until light and fluffy.

 

Once cream mixture is steaming (not boiling), add 1 cup to yolk mixture, whisking constantly to prevent the egg mixture from scrambling.

 

Add tempered yolk mixture to saucepan and whisk together.  Cook over medium-low heat stirring constantly with a rubber spatula until the mixture is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.

 

Stain custard through a fine mesh strainer into a mixing bowl.  Allow mixture to sit until room temperature.  Cover custard and chill in the refrigerator overnight.  Freeze according to your manufacturer’s instructions.

 

Scoop custard into small wide mouth jars (I used these) and place in freezer until fully frozen, 3 to 5 hours.

 

Top custard with a full layer of raw sugar (about 1 to 2 tablespoons).  Carefully brulee the top of each custard with a kitchen torch and serve immediately.

 

*To make superfine sugar at home add 1 cup plus 2 teaspoons of sugar to the bowl of a food processor and process until sugar feels like fine sand (1 to 2 minutes).

 

*Next time I make this I will try Ashley Rodriguez's crème brulee topping method (found here) for an extra crunchy lid on the frozen custard. 

 

Recipe slightly adapted from Spoon Fork Bacon