Coffee Ice Cream with Rosemary Shortbread

Print Print | Print Email this to a friend | May 25, 2009
Filed Under cookies, frozen dessert, recipe

For those of you who follow me on Twitter, you know that I’m a dedicated coffee drinker. I was very loyal to illy for a time, while Costco carried it, but now my heart belongs to LavAzza. Many of you recommended it to me, but honestly I never tried it until I went to my friend’s bakery. At the Salty Tart Michelle creates pastries that inspired Andrew Zimmern to say it is the “best bakery in the World!” The coffee she serves is LavAzza. The coffee is excellent, worthy of her treats and good enough to make me switch from illy!

So when I wanted to make coffee ice cream I used Lavazza beans and a recipe from David Lebovitz, which I found in a recent copy of Fine Cooking magazine. The coffee flavor is so deep and intense that it almost has a bittersweet chocolate taste to it. If you’ve ever had Vietnamese ice coffee, this ice cream is reminiscent. That rich flavor just begged for something bright, so I paired it with a rosemary shortbread cookie. A new addiction is born!

Coffee Ice Cream by David Lebovitz from Perfect Scoop:

2 cups heavy cream

1 cup whole milk

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1 vanilla bean, split and scraped

1 1/2 cups whole coffee beans, slightly crushed, but not ground fine. (I put them in the coffee grinder and pulsed several times just to break them up. If they are too fine they will absorb too much of the cream and the ice cream may be bitter.)

5 egg yolks

Rosemary Shortbread Cookies, inspired by Emily Luchetti’s recipe in A Passion for Desserts:

4 ounces (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces.

1/4 cup sugar

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

3 tablespoons rice flour (rice flour has no gluten so it would make the cookies more tender. If you don’t have rice flour, you could substitute cake flour.)

pinch salt

1 teaspoon finely chopped Rosemary, more whole needles for the top of the cookies.

1 teaspoon orange zest

To make the ice cream:

Prepare an ice bath to cool your ice cream custard. Place ice in a large bowl, fill that bowl 1/2 way with cold water. Place another bowl into the ice water. Make sure the bowl is big enough to hold all of the ice cream custard.

In a medium sauce pan gently heat 1 cup of the cream, whole milk, sugar, vanilla bean and coffee beans. Allow to simmer for a moment and then remove from heat and cover. Let the coffee and vanilla steep in the cream for at least an hour, but up to 6 hours. I let mine go a long time to get a really intense flavor. It worked!!!

Once you’ve allowed the coffee to steep long enough, bring the mixture back to a gentle simmer. Place your yolks in a medium sized bowl and whisk so they are smooth. While whisking, slowly drizzle a cup of the hot cream over the yolks.

When the yolks feel warm add them back to the pot of cream and cook on low heat, just until

the mixture thickens enough to coat the back of your spoon. Immediately remove from heat.

Place the remaining cup of cream in the bowl over your ice bath. Strain the custard into the cream. This will help to cool it down quickly.

Push the cream out of the coffee beans with a rubber spatula. Cool the custard in the ice bath until well chilled. Transfer to a lidded container and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, but overnight is even better to achieve the smoothest texture.

Freeze the custard according to the Ice Cream Maker manufacturer’s directions.

The ice cream should be set up, but still soft like ice cream from Dairy Queen. In other words don’t let it spin so long that it is hard enough to scoop. If you let it go that far it may get grainy and a little bit greasy tasting. Transfer it back to the lidded container and freeze for another couple of hours. This may seem like a long time to wait, but the texture of ice cream you get will bring you to your knees!

While the ice cream is setting up you can prepare the rosemary shortbread!

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

In a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment place the cold butter, sugar, flours, salt, rosemary and zest. Mix until the dough just comes together in a smooth dough. This can take 5-8 minutes, more if your butter is very cold.

Form the dough into a 2-inch thick log and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least an hour. Can be made the day before.

Cut the dough 1/8th-inch thick slices.

Press more rosemary in the cookies that are placed on a cookie sheet lined with parchment or a silpat. Bake for 10-15 minutes, just until the edges are golden brown.

Serve the ice cream and cookies together, but be warned that you will become addicted! The ice cream would also be amazing with cajeta or chocolate cake!

On July 30th I will be making desserts for a fabulous dinner at the Walker Art Center, on the field over looking the city. The challenge is for local chefs to create a meal using only local ingredients. I mean local, all from the Twin Cities and surrounding towns. Come find out more and join me for dinner!

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Comments

32 Responses to “Coffee Ice Cream with Rosemary Shortbread”

05/25/09 8:35 pm	Kelly said... Oh my! That ice cream sounds so good! I think I would have to put some hot fudge and toasted almonds on it. The cookies sound interesting. Sort of like something you would be served at a fancy Southern tea. Nicely done!
05/25/09 11:37 pm	Deborah Mele said... Wow, you have me on both desserts. Planning on buying my ice cream maker this week and this just may be my first choice. It has been scorching temps here in Umbria this week and a scoop of ice cream would be ideal after a long, very hot day. I also love any fresh herb dessert so have bookmarked this to make the shortbread as well. We have wild rosemary growing all over our property.
05/25/09 11:56 pm	Jaime said... Very nice, Zoe. I like the spoon in that last picture. Very pretty.
05/26/09 12:38 am	crezi dol said... The ice cream and cookies so amazing love it.
05/26/09 1:56 am	Sharon said... The Rosemary Shortbread cookies makes you want to pop them straight into your mouth! All the best for the dinner at the Walker Art Centre..wonder what dessert you will make..hope to see them on your blog.
05/26/09 2:04 am	Open Coffee Library said... Coffee Ice Cream with Rosemary Shortbread : Zoe Bakes… [Source: Zoe Bakes] quoted: (I put them in the coffee grinder and pulsed several times just to break them up. If they are too fine they will absorb too much of the cream and the ice cream may be bitter.)…
05/26/09 3:09 am	deeba said... I’m splat with my face next to the screen Zoe. I’m a huge COFFEE person & this ice-cream is sensational. Steeping must have made it come alive & kicking! The pairing with shortbread juts makes it even more indulgent…YUM!!
05/26/09 3:45 am	Amrita said... Decadent as usual! I’m trying the shortbread for sure!
05/26/09 8:46 am	Susan said... What an inspired pairing of flavors! My first love is deep, dark chocolate ice cream but this recipe could certainly make me think twice! Shortbread is a favorite of mine and your recipe sounds delightful. Thank you!
05/26/09 9:18 am	Y said... Oh the ice-cream looks amazing. I used to drink a lot of Illy and Lavazza, but these days our household drinks more locally roasted stuff.
05/26/09 9:55 am	Maris said... What a beautiful dessert! I love coffee…and coffee ice cream!
05/26/09 12:46 pm	Karen said... Coffee ice cream… YUM! It looks so creamy and delicious. I’m going to have to make some!
05/26/09 12:46 pm	Maria said... Love the Perfect Scoop. Haven’t tried this one yet, it is on the list. Love the rosemary cookies, I am for sure making them and soon!
05/26/09 12:48 pm	Claudia said... What a great combination! Love the look of the rosmary shortbread – and it’s easy to make, too. I’m just thinking of a different version: Some shortbread crumbles in the ice cream. Would that work?
05/26/09 12:53 pm	Wendy said... I love that coffee ice cream. I’ve made it before. Your cookies sound delicious!
05/26/09 1:29 pm	David said... glad you liked the ice cream!–nice pairing with the shortbread, too : )
05/26/09 2:55 pm	zoe said... Refreshing and flavorful! Love it!
05/26/09 2:56 pm	Janine at Rustic Kitchen said... Zoe, again we’re so in synch! My signature holiday cookie is rosemary shortbread — I even send it out in my Christmas card one year. I’ll have to try it again with rice flour, as well as your lovely presentation. In the meantime, here’s my recipe: http://www.rustickitchen.com/blog/?p=30 Hope your urban farm is giving you great success. My veg garden at the weekend farm is particularly humbling lately. Cheers, Janine
05/27/09 12:15 pm	marie g said... gorgeous brown edges but no info on oven temp or time to bake??? I guess butter dough is touchy stuff!
05/27/09 1:05 pm	zoe said... Hi Margie, THANK YOU so much for pointing out my omission! I didn’t mean for you to have to guess at the baking! I’ve now added the temp and time to the post! Thanks, Zoë
05/27/09 1:22 pm	sarah sorge said... Hi Zoe, yesterday i went out and brought the exact same ice cream maker as you have and this morning i attempted to make your wonderful recipe. I froze the bowl overnight and cooled the ingredients and turned it on and it just went to a sloppy soupy mush and stayed that way. i kept it going for 20 mins, then 40 mins and For the life of me i couldn’t get it to freeze. Is there a special trick to these machines that is not in the manual? am i doing something wrong? please help. kind wishes, Sarah.
05/27/09 2:55 pm	Andrea said... What a delicious combination. There’s something about herbs and butter cookies that go so well together.
05/27/09 4:01 pm	foodcreate said... Beautiful! What a inventive way to add to a recipe. Delicious:) and you can visit me if i can visit you. Welcome! foodcreate
05/27/09 4:21 pm	zoe said... Hi Sarah, Did the bowl of your ice cream maker feel as though it was frozen? Did the ice cream base at least freeze to the sides when you first put it in? It sounds like the bowl wasn’t frozen enough??? I just borrowed this machine from a friend so I will ask her if there was something unusual about getting the bowl to freeze, like needing it to sit in the freezer longer. Thanks, Zoë
05/27/09 7:58 pm	Sue at All About Food said... Oh, Zoe, if you love this coffee ice cream, you must try Alice Medrich’s Cocoa Nib Ice Cream in her “bittersweet” book. It is to die for. I’ve been making lots of shortbread lately, too. I hadn’t thought of adding rosemary. Next batch! Thanks for sharing all of your great recipes and wonderful photos.
05/28/09 1:20 pm	sarah sorge said... ahh you were right Zoe, my freezer wasn’t cold enough! i turned my freezer up and rested the bowl at the very back near the wall and it now works a treat! thank you for your kind advice and reply. sarah.xx
05/28/09 3:45 pm	zoe said... Hi Sarah, That is great news! So glad the mystery is solved, I was clear out of ideas! Zoë
05/29/09 12:22 pm	Elyse said... Mmm, this coffee ice cream sounds fantastic! I love soft ice cream. And I bet it pairs absolutely beautifully with those wonderfully herby rosemary shortbread. Fantastic!
06/3/09 4:24 am	diva said... i’m lovin this whole combination. i cannot resist coffee ice cream and this just works i bet nice.
06/3/09 10:45 pm	harcoutbreton said... looks fantastic… this sounds delicious… i cant resit ice creams… definitely gonna try this… thanks for sharing…
06/27/09 6:20 pm	Rena said... What a wonderful pairing of flavors! On the coffee/espresso front, I’m partial to Kimbo. I’m pretty sure they make regular coffee beans as well. As a lover of Illy and LavAzza, you must try it at least once.
08/22/09 10:49 am	chef knife said... what can go wrong with icecream and coffee?