It's Ok to Love it THIS Much!

This ice cream is so good that it makes me want to cry! Alright, maybe not cry, but it makes me want to eat a whole lot of it. That’s why, although it’s my new favourite flavour, I can never make it again because I would have no probably devouring an entire tub in one sitting and that’s just not right. The strange thing is that this isn’t a flavour I would have even considered a mere few weeks ago. There’s no chocolate in it, no caramel, it doesn’t seem to make any sense. But once you taste it, everything comes together. What is this miracle flavour? It’s a vanilla custard based ice cream with prunes flamed in Armagnac and it should come as no surprise that the recipe is courtesy of all things good, Dorie Greenspan. I first experienced this flavour combination when I made the cake that got Dorie fired. Right away I was hooked.

Prior to that experience I didn’t know that I liked Armagnac, but apparently I really do. My Armagnac of choice has been Armagnac de Montal and I’ve been trying it in more than a few recipes and it’s superb. I didn’t know I liked prunes that much either until the cake. I had never baked with them and I think my exposure to prunes was limited to eating stewed prunes at my Grandma’s house. So I had no idea that prunes and Armagnac were good on their own let alone together. The technique of flaming dried fruits in alcohol was also something I’d never done before but that inspired me to play around with it and try different fruits and different alcohols. One of the best things to come out of my experimentation was a wonderful Chocolate, Cherry & Rum cheesecake.

As good as it was though, I still loved the flavour of prunes and Armagnac and wanted to try it out in more than just cake. What do I love more than cake? Ice cream! Who makes great ice cream? Dorie! And it just so happened that I had three egg yolks leftover from when I made my Lime, Mango and Ginger Meringue pie, (from another fantastic Dorie recipe) so it was like I was destined to make this ice cream. It’s unlike any other ice cream I’ve ever had and I’m completely in love with it. Don’t turn your nose up at it until you’ve tried it, it may just replace chocolate in your life…

Best Ice Cream EVER (Adapted from Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan)

1 cup 1% milk (that’s what was in the fridge, feel free to up it to whole)

1 cup heavy cream

3 large egg yolks

½ cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla

10 prunes, chopped

¼ cup Armagnac

¼ cup water

Put the prunes and ¼ cup Armagnac in a small saucepan over medium heat and cook until most of the water evaporates. Remove the pan from heat and light it on fire! Weeeewww!!!! Look at those flames go! When the flames die out, pour the prunes and any leftover liquid into a bowl to cool.

Bring the milk and cream to a boil in a heavy bottomed saucepan. Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, whisk the yolks and sugar together until well blended and slightly thickened. Continue whisking and pour about 1/3 of the hot liquid into the egg mixture to temper it. Continue whisking and pour the remaining liquid into the egg mixture. Pour everything back into the saucepan and cook over med heat, stirring constantly until the custard thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon. (Dorie says the custard should reach 170F but not more than 180F… I don’t have a thermometer so I wouldn’t know). Remove the pan from the heat and strain into a clean, heatproof bowl. Stir in the vanilla and Armagnac mixture and refrigerate until thoroughly chilled. Pour the custard into an ice cream maker and follow manufacturer’s directions.

If you’re wondering about other fantastic ice cream flavours that Dorie inspires, I suggest you add world peace cookie dough to chocolate ice cream. Oooooh yeah!

Technorati Tags:

Armagnac + Ice Cream + Dorie Greenspan + Prunes