sticky toffee pudding ice cream

We're back at it with the sticky toffee pudding beer, only this time we're using it in an ice cream chock full of dates and sticky toffee pudding pieces!

This ice cream gave me a pretty good case of brain freeze to the point of my tongue perceiving the ice cream to be tangy and not sweet enough. But I remedied the latter by having a date or two with the ice cream. If you don't want to end up with a tangy, fizzy tongue, I advise you leave the ice cream out at room temperature for 5-10 minutes with the lid off and that way you won't have that issue. Plus, the ice cream will be easier to scoop! 

The ice cream was a pretty involved recipe, though it originally wasn't meant to be. The day before I recorded this video, I happened to look on the Wikipedia page for sticky toffee pudding and it said it's made with dates. I thought to myself that this ice cream needed to have a date ice cream base to make it more authentic to the traditional recipe.

Making the custard for the ice cream is actually harder than including the dates, which only involves chopping them up and cooking them in water for 5 minutes before blending them with some more water to get a date puree. 

Speaking of the custard, when I was making it, I ended up with a lot of solid egg pieces and I anticipated not having much ice cream as the end product. But luckily, I was proven wrong because I actually ended up with more than a quart of ice cream. Sadly I didn't have a 2nd ice cream tub, so I discarded the extra ice cream. When you scoop ice cream into a tub, you don't want it to the top because otherwise the tub will overflow during the freezing process! You should leave a little room at the top for that reason. 

This recipe has beer in it, so my dad didn't try the ice cream. 

HELPFUL LINK: 

Sticky Toffee Pudding:: https://www.amazon.com/Mr-Kipling-Sticky-Toffee-Pudding/dp/B012OUULD4/ref=sr_1_2_s_it?s=grocery&ie=UTF8&qid=1495983374&sr=1-2& 


You will need: 

For the cooking equipment: 

A small bowl
A medium saucepot
A large saucepot
A candy thermometer
A strainer
A large bowl
Aluminum foil
A small saucepot
A blender
An ice cream maker
An ice cream tub

For the ice cream: 

5 eggs
1/4-1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 cup whole milk
1 cup heavy whipping cream
15 dates, chopped up into thirds
1/2 cup water
An additional 1 cup water
12 oz. sticky toffee pudding ale
5 oz. sticky toffee pudding(see HELPFUL LINK)

To make the custard: 

1. Crack 5 eggs into a small bowl, one at a time. DO NOT WHISK THE EGGS! Only put the egg yolks into a large bowl. Discard the egg whites. 
2. Add the granulated sugar into the large bowl. Mix the egg yolks and sugar together until you get a yellow mixture. 
3. Pour the whole milk and heavy whipping cream into a medium saucepot. Put the stove on at low heat. Stir the mixture until it develops a "skin" on top. Once the "skin" has developed, turn the stove off. 
4. Remove saucepot from heat and spoon the milk mixture into the egg yolk mixture. Do not pour it all in at once- otherwise you'll end up with scrambled eggs! After spooning in the milk mixture each time, stir the egg yolk and milk mixtures together. Repeat until all the milk mixture has been mixed in with the egg yolk mixture and you have a pale yellow mixture. This is your custard.
5. Transfer your custard into a large saucepot. Attach a candy thermometer to the large saucepot. Put the saucepot on the stove on low heat. Heat the custard until it reaches 180 degrees Fahrenheit. Do not stir the custard! Stirring it will cause the custard temperature to drop. 
6. Once the custard reaches 170 degrees, turn the stove off and remove it from heat immediately. Pour the custard through a strainer with a large bowl underneath. Dispose of the solids in the strainer immediately, otherwise they'll turn into scrambled eggs! 
7. Pour aluminum foil over the large bowl and chill it in the fridge for now. 

To make the date puree: 

1. While the custard is chilling, put the chopped up dates and 1/2 cup water into a small saucepot.
2. Turn the stove on medium heat and let the dates cook in the water for 5 minutes to soften the dates during the blending process. If the water starts to bubble, just stir it, but if the water starts to boil, turn the flame off immediately and move it to a cool burner!
3. After 5 minutes or the water boils(whichever happens first), move the saucepot to a cool burner and let it cool down for 10-20 minutes. 
4. Once the date mixture has cooled down, pour that an an additional cup of water into a blender. Blend for 1 minute. 

To reduce the beer: 

1. Pour the beer into a medium saucepot. Put the saucepot on the stove on low heat and let the beer reduce until there's only 8 ounces left. Reducing the beer cooks some of the alcohol out, which will enable the ice cream to freeze. 

To make the ice cream: 

1. Take the custard in the large bowl out and mix in the reduced beer and date puree. Put aluminum foil  over the large bowl and let the beer mixture chill in the fridge for 8-24 hours. 
2. Turn your ice cream maker on and pour the chilled date beer custard into the bowl of the machine. Let the ice cream churn according to your ice cream maker's instructions. My machine said to churn for 11 minutes. 
3. Break apart some pieces of sticky toffee pudding(2.5 ounces worth) and add them into the ice cream maker as its churning.  Let the ice cream churn for an additional 3-4 minutes(or according to the manual). 
5. Turn the ice cream maker off, detach the bowl, and scoop half the ice cream into an ice cream tub. Top the ice cream with pieces of the rest of the sticky toffee pudding including the toffee sauce on the bottom of the pudding. Cover the sticky toffee pudding pieces and toffee sauce with the rest of the ice cream. 
6. Put the lid on the ice cream tub and let it freeze in the freezer for 4 hours, or overnight. 
7. Bon appetit! 

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