Exotically spiced Almond ice cream
Like almonds? Like cinnamon and cardamom? Me to – let’s combine these delicious flavours into one ice cream!
Avid readers already know about my love for all things almondy. As I also happen to love cinnamon and cardamom, I guess the creation of this recipe was just a matter of time!
Don’t forget to grind the almonds 🙂
Simple and delicious
Catering to all of us with less time than we would like to our disposal, this recipe is one of those valuable “put all ingredients in a saucepan and it’ll be ready in less than ten minutes”-ones.
The ingredients are also pretty straightforward – milk, cream, sugar, almonds, the spices and some agar-agar for improved consistency
(No agar-agar? Consider increasing the proportion of cream, or ponder adding 1-2 egg yolks; if so, do check out the posts covering custard-based ice creams for some good advise on how to best handle custard bases).
First, put all ingredients except for the Agar-agar in a sauce pan. Don’t forget the spices!
Agar agar – quite a powerful gelling agent, derived from red algae and thus popular also with vegetarians. In this recipe, we will only be using about 1 teaspoon – that should do just fine!
When the base is hot and close to a boil, add the Agar agar.
Everything has been added to the base at this stage! Milk, cream, sugar, almonds, cardamom, cinnamon stick and even the agar agar. Now, we will just let it simmer slightly below boil for a few minutes.
Whisk, bring to a boil, then let simmer for about four minutes.
This is not only to make sure that the spices release their flavours well, but also to ensure that the Agar agar “activates” properly. Once the temperature has been reduced, the Agar agar will begin to settle, thus improving the overall consistency and texture of the final ice cream.
Cool down the base as quickly as you can. Preferably, let it then chill overnight in your fridge.
Once chilled, remove the cinnamon stick(s) and churn the base in your ice cream machine.
If you have no ice cream machine, still-freeze in line with the instructions in this helpful post.
Mmm … freshly churned spiced almond ice cream
Spicy almond treat
Almond remains the undisputed overall flavour here, with the exotic spices adding flavour contrast in a surprisingly discreet way. I thought the end-result delicious as it was, but if you prefer less discreet sensations, do experiment with adding more spices to the mixture. As always – feel free to go for the result which will please your and your loved ones’ tongues the most 😀
- 400 ml (about 2½ cup) whole milk
- 330 ml (about 1.4 cup) sugar
- About ½ gram Agar agar (about 1 teaspoons)
- 200 ml (about ¾ cup) ground blanched sweet almonds
- 200 ml (about 0.4 cup) cream
- 1-2 cinnamon sticks
- 2-4 cardamom pods' worth of cardamom
- Add milk, sugar, the spices and the ground sweet almonds in a saucepan and heat until warm/hot. Then add the Agar agar and whisk.
- Bring to a boil, then turn down the heat to a simmer for about 4 minutes.
- Take off from the heat and let cool down, possibly even chill.
- Once cooled/chilled down, remove the cinnamon stick(s), whisk, churn the ice cream base in your ice cream machine (or still-freeze, using your freezer).
- Towards the end of the (machine-)churning, add the cream and let the churning finish.
- Once ready, enjoy the ice cream fresh on the spot or store in freezer-safe container (with plastic film and lid over) in the freezer.
Hi
Thanks for your lovely recipes. I am from India. Have tried your icecreams and they are awesome. Just wanted to know why we do not add cream when it is being boiled like the other recipes.
Please, would like to know.
Thanks and regards.
smita
Hi Smita,
Thanks for your kind words!
First, you could – if you’d like – add the cream to the rest of the dairy already from the start.
The reason why I chose to do it differently here was partly to show that the variation is possible.
Main reasons for near-boiling (all) in ice cream bases are to ensure full pasteurisation, to maximise steeping of flavours, and to give the ice cream an overall touch of the “cooked”-quality. But in this recipe, there are no eggs requiring pasteurisation, the flavours are strong enough to stand out anyway, and I thought that the “fresh cream”-quality could be more interesting than the “cooked base”-quality 🙂 Also, since the cream is added cold, the time it takes to cool down the base for the churning is also shortened considerably.
If you have not yet tried to add the cream fresh to the base like this, I suggest that you give it a try and check if you think it adds anything to the eating-experience 🙂
I think this recipe is totally wrong. 330ml sugar is too much and the almonds and the agar too much. The almonds didn’t have any taste in the ice cream. I don’t know but something went wrong.
Georgos,
Sorry to hear that your ice cream worked out so badly. I don’t know what happened because the proportions are correct and work well for me. Admittedly, the recipe use a lot of sugar but that is intentional: those who prefer a less sweet ice cream could of course cut down on the sugar or use another base (this other almond-ice cream recipe could also be used as base). Better luck next time!