Every year at the end of summer we’re using up as much of the harvest as we can handle. Carrots are a great late harvest prize and when they are fresh out of the ground their sweetness is incredible, especially when they are roasted and caramelized. This week’s flavor is a bit of an amalgamation of flavors drawn from carrot cake and the Indian dessert Carrot Halwa.
First the carrots. We like em’ roasty for our ice cream. The sugars amplify and the water is baked out and what is left is nothing short of magic.
Once the carrots are roasted and caramelized, they get pureed with a bit of milk and will be blended into the brown sugar ice cream base.
Then comes the coconut. We’ve found that coconut has a bigger impact on the flavor if it is toasted first and steeped in the ice cream base hot out of the oven.
Pistachios. We have a lot of love for many foods, but I could make flavors for months just with pistachios. Man are they good. Here we keep it simple, and crush the pistachios to go into the ice cream at the end of the churn.
The scoop is a silky smooth carrot coconut ice cream decorated with crunchy pistachios. Harvest time goodness.
Coconut Carrot Pistachio Ice Cream Recipe
Toasted Coconut:
1 cup of shaved coconut
Roasted Carrot Puree:
2-3 Carrots, medium, 1/4″ slices
1 Tablespoon Butter, melted
1/4 C milk
Ice Cream Base:
2 cups Heavy Cream
1/2 cup Milk
1/2 cup Brown Sugar
2 Eggs
3/4 teaspoon Sea salt
1C Carrot puree
1C Toasted Coconut
1/2 Cup Crushed pistachios
Instructions:
1. Make Roasted Carrot Puree: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Toss carrots with melted butter and roast for 15 minutes. Stir carrots and roast for 15 minutes more or until caramelized but not burnt. Remove from oven and puree with 1/4 C milk until smooth; reserve.
2. Make Toasted Coconut (Do this right before you make the ice cream base for best results): Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spread shaved coconut out on a sheet pan in one flat layer. Place in oven for approximately 10 minutes or until golden brown.
3. Make ice cream base: Crack eggs into a mixing bowl and whisk fully. Add brown sugar and whisk. Add heavy cream, milk, carrot puree and salt. Whisk until ingredients are combined. Add toasted coconut.
4. Cook/pasteurize ice cream base: Over medium heat, whisk or stir base continuously until temperature reaches 165-170 degrees. Remove from heat. Strain out toasted coconut. Cool ice cream base to room temperature (an ice bath will do this in about 15-20 minutes). Cover base, and chill in refrigerator overnight.
5. Churn ice cream base in ice cream machine according to manufacturer’s instructions. Add pistachios in last 5 minutes of churn. Package ice cream in air tight storage container, then store in freezer until you’re ready to eat, preferably overnight if you can possibly wait.
*Yields approximately 2.5 pints
If you’d rather not make it, you can be one of two lucky winners of this fabulous, scratch made craft ice cream in our weekly pint giveaway. Enter your name in the comments section here, or on our facebook page under the posted contest. Two winners will be drawn randomly on Friday 9/18/15 at 4pm. Winners must be able to pick up locally in Minneapolis. Prizes must be claimed by email within one week or we will redistribute. 🙂 Good luck!
