With summer’s heat upon us, there’s nothing like a frozen dessert, such as this delicious cardamom ice cream. The ice cream is rich and creamy with a gentle hint of warm, spicy cardamom.
Cardamom ice cream is perfect on its own, but it goes very well with chocolate cake too. Cardamom ice cream is also the perfect accompaniment to fresh peaches, which are in season right now.
To make this recipe, I modified a recipe in Malai, a wonderful South Asian-inspired ice cream cookbook by Pooja Bavishi. I’ve tried a couple of the ice cream recipes in the book and they were great. I borrowed the orange and fennel ice cream recipe (which is fantastic) and used cardamom instead of orange and fennel.
Tips
- Making ice cream is not a spur of the moment activity. Most ice cream makers that I know of require freezing an insert long in advance. Be sure to plan ahead for this frozen summer treat.
- Your ice cream maker will produce an ice cream with a soft serve consistency. If you want a firmer ice cream, remove it from the machine and store it in the freezer for several hours.
- The original recipe calls for some corn syrup. I substituted sugar and it worked just fine.
Special Equipment
You’ll need an ice cream maker, such as the old Donvier that I use (here’s one on Poshmark). Follow the manufacturer’s instructions for your machine while using this recipe.
Ingredients
You need the following ingredients to make this cardamom ice cream.
- 2 cups whole milk
- 1 1/4 cups heavy cream
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2/3 cup + 2 tablespoons sugar (white granulated)
- 4 or 5 green cardamom pods
Directions
Put the cornstarch in a small bowl, add two tablespoons of the milk and the salt. Whisk everything together thoroughly. Set it aside.
Crush the cardamom pods on a cutting board with the side of a large knife or a wooden spoon.
In a heavy-bottomed saucepan, add the remaining milk, cream, all the sugar, and cardamom pods. Set the heat to medium and, whisking from time to time, bring the mixture to a light boil. Continue to boil it, whisking constantly, for about 3 minutes, until the sugar is dissolved and everything is incorporated.
Reduce the heat to low and whisk in the cornstarch mixture. Raise the heat to medium and bring it back to a low boil, whisking constantly for about a minute, until it thickens a little. Remove the pan from the heat and cool the mixture (the ice cream base) to room temperature.
Strain the mixture through a fine mesh sieve into a container. Cover the container and refrigerate the mixture for at least 4 hours. Letting it sit longer, even overnight, is ideal.
When you are ready to make the ice cream, remove the chilled ice cream base from the refrigerator and stir it to mix everything back together. Pour the base into your ice cream machine and churn it according to the machine instructions.
You can serve the ice cream right away or put it in a container to freeze more.
Serve and enjoy!
Related Posts
Here are some other dessert recipes that you might enjoy.