Popcorn Ice Cream

(how everything started)

So this must be the appropriate place to start, right? My brother first made this a long(ish) time ago. I don’t know, let’s say five years ago (you can find his recipe, in Swedish, here). I think he read about it on a Swedish blog but I’m not really sure. Anyway, it kinda became a thing in our circle. I then decided to do it one of the first times we had Danilo and Maria over for dinner, serving it with something that my father introduced me to: salt and olive oil on ice cream (which he in turn got from some place, probably Mathias Dahlgren actually Jamie Oliver). And it continued to be kind of a thing. It became something fun to serve new people and then annoyingly ask: ”…what do you think it is..? Guess!” (it really is pretty rare that it’s fun when someone asks you to guess, but… I’m naively open to the possibility that it might not always have been annoying).

So why the fuss, you might rightly ask. This just sounds like a hipstery over worked, over hyped, over well… this just sounds like the sorta thing that’s gonna be over pretty quickly, right? Not a thing that becomes something more than a fun (pretentious) little (annoying) thing? Buuuuut, listen, I know popcorn ice cream sounds weird, but the weird part is actually that it’s not weird at all. It’s just a really, really good flavouring for ice cream!

Quite frankly, it’s my favourite ice cream. And despite attempts to find a conceptually appropriate pairing, e.g. coca-cola sauce, I think salt flakes and olive really hold its ground against the alternatives. And you know what? I know it sounds weird, but the weird part is that it’s actually… yeah, you know where I’m going with this. It’s just great.

And so what if all the above makes me look like a bit of a quirky foodie type guy, can’t that just be ok?

Time-wise: if you have a fancy ice cream maker: ca 2 hours. 1.5 hours of prep, ca 30 (eh, maybe 40) min in the machine. Explain fancy! Fancy means active cooling. Cheaper ice cream makers have cooling blocks that have to be frozen in preparation to making the ice cream. In addition, with these machines you normally have to cool the batter before putting it in the machine. With an active cooling aggregate you can put warm batter in the machine (at least the one I have). I do think however, that results improve if the batter is pre-cooled, also in the case of active cooling. So:

If you have an freezing block style ice cream maker: Ca 4 hours. 1.5 hours of prep, 2 hours to let the batter cool down, 30 min (ish, very dependent on the actual machine) in the machine.

Ideally, regardless of machine, it’s preferable to make the batter the day before and stuff it in the fridge overnight.

Let’s get down to it shall we?

Special Equipment

  • You kinda have to have an ice cream maker to make ice cream. You can make it without but even a rudimentary (cheap) one makes a big big difference
  • A cooking thermometer
Created with Sketch. 2 or 4 hours depending on equipment Created with Sketch. 4 Servings

Ingredients

  • 300 gmilk
  • 300 grdouble cream
  • 60 gsugar
  • 80 gegg yolk (4-6 yolks, depending on size)
  • 50 gun-popped popcorn

Directions

  1. Pop the popcorn in a pot. Actually, add just a little bit of salt to the popcorn.
  2. Heat the milk and cream together in a pot.
  3. When the milk-cream mixture reaches a light simmer, take it off the heat and add the popped popcorn. Put this to rest for about 45 min under a lid.
  4. Mix the egg yolks with the sugar. Some light whipping will do.
  5. Sift away the popcorn from the milk-cream mixture. You should be left with ca 5 dl of popcorn-tasting cream-milk. Throw away the mushy popcorn and whisk the popcorn-milk-cream in with the egg yolk and sugar.
  6. Put the mixture in a pot and gently warm it to about 84 degrees Celsius. Stir the bottom of the pot continuously with a whisker or a wooden spoon. The important thing here is to not let anything stick to the bottom of the pot.

    The exact temperature is hotly debated (not really that hotly though…)! Some recipes say 82, others say just below 85. I say 84. The important part is to not let the yolk get to hot. If this happens, the batter gets grainy and taste a lot more like eggs. But don’t worry, there’s a fix! Repeat step 1-5. Easy, no? But seriously, it’s not that hard, just be careful. Start out on a fairly high (stove) temperature but reduce it quickly when the thermometer starts ticking faster. Reduce the heat as the temperature rises so that the temperature of the mixture (ideally) comes to a halt at 84 degrees. Remember to stir. Keep the temperature at 84 degrees for a little while, say 20-30 seconds, before removing the pot from the stove. And if you’re the nervous type, just stop a little bit short of 84.
  7. Let the batter cool down until it’s about fridge temperature. Best practise? Leave it in the fridge over night. This improves both taste and texture of the final product.
  8. Put into the freezer whatever you’re serving the ice cream in. Home made ice cream tends to melt pretty quickly. Serving it in chilled bowls really helps to counter this.
  9. Put the batter in the ice cream maker.

    My ice cream maker stops stirring automatically when the batter is wonderfully creamy*. This usually happens after about 20 minutes, if the batter starts out cool, and the machine then proceeds to freeze the ice cream. At -22 degrees C this can quickly make the ice cream too firm. Leave it in the machine (or put it in the freezer) for just 10 minutes before serving. It should then be firm, but still silky smooth.

 

*My former (cooling block) one, just stopped when it couldn’t manage to stir anymore because of the thickness of the ice cream, which is usually at about the same texture.

Serve in chilled bowls with a sprinkle of salt flakes and some olive oil. It is to be eaten post haste!

And hey, don’t forget to annoyingly ask your guests what they think the flavor is. They’ll love it probably.

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