Sinful Concoction

A week or two ago Scot and I were discussing ice cream for some reason and he told me that the best coffee ice cream he'd ever tried had been one he sampled when we were visiting friends of ours in Philadelphia.  (Thus, it was Philly style ice cream - ie:  no eggs.)  We've bought all kinds of varieties of coffee ice cream over the years from Bryers and Ben & Jerry's to Starbucks and Häagen Dazs.  Never have we been able to duplicate the sheer bliss that was this particular ice cream.

Scot was waxing rhapsodic about this stuff so I pulled out my ice cream cookbook, The Ultimate Ice Cream Book.  The great thing about this book is that it has many recipes in both regular and Philly style.  So I flipped to "Coffee" and found a Philly style recipe.  I told Scot I would make it for him and make I did, just today. 

[insert pornographic sounds of rapture here]

That stuff is amazing.  So, of course I have to share the recipe.  It's fantastically easy, with just three ingredients.

Coffee Ice Cream, Philadelphia Style
by:  Bruce Weinstein

3.5 cups heavy cream
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup whole coffee beans

Heat the cream in a large heavy saucepan over medium heat until small bubbles appear around the edge.  Do not let the cream boil.  Remove from the heat and add the sugar.  Stir until the sugar dissolves completely.  Stir in the coffee beans.  Cover and cool to room temperature, then refrigerate overnight.

Strain out the coffee beans.  Freeze in 1 to 2 batches in your ice cream machine according to the manufacturer's instructions.  When finished, the ice cream will be soft but ready to eat.  For firmer ice cream, transfer to a freezer-safe container and freeze at least two hours.

(makes about 1 qt)
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Variations:

Coffee Cordial Ice Cream:  Add 1/4 cup coffee liqueur to the cream along with the sugar.  Proceed with recipe as directed

Mexican Coffee Ice Cream:  Add 1/2 tsp of ground cinnamon along with the coffee beans.  Proceed with recipe as directed.