Sunday, June 30, 2013

Pistachio Nut Ice Cream

Helping Mom recently with her yard sale, I discovered she had two ice cream makers.  She has always made the best homemade ice cream!  Because Stephen, Andrew and I are ice cream-a-holics, I thought I'd borrow one and give it a shot.

Inspiration......On my trip last October to California to visit Cuzzin Thom and his family, their good friends Guy and Marge entertained us with pizza from the coolest brick pizza oven AND homemade pistachio ice cream. Marge is the cook I want to be.....between all the moments of laughter at and with each other, she manages to come up with dishes that make you stop before taking your first bite...... Here in Virginia we'd say....Guurl! Don't EVEN talk to me right now cuz this is some kinda good! MmmmHmmmm! Check her out here...http://marge-alicious.com/ and thanks Sunshine for feedin' me good....Guurl! And............. of course a little Dithinuuurz conversation never hurt anybody!
Thom & Guy preparing the oven!
Months later, I'm finally going to try it and started my search via google to find a good recipe. Within minutes I found a web-site and of course I had to check it out giving my brown-eyed sisterhood some props!  Just the pictures alone had me hooked! http://www.browneyedbaker.com/2009/08/12/pistachio-nut-ice-cream/
 I cannot take any credit for the recipe listed below.  It's all the Brown Eyed Baker and the credits she provides at the end of the recipe.  However......because it is so delicious I had to pass it on for you to try. 

Success!  It was actually very easy and I ended up having to let the custard sit overnight in the refrigerator because I waited too late to start making it. (Make sure you take into consideration cracking and picking the pistachio nuts) But, by doing that, it only took a short time in the ice cream maker.

I couldn't wait to try it and took a few bites from the canister and offered Andrew the plastic blade (talk about licking the spoon - what a treat!)  Everyone else decided to wait until later, but I fixed myself a bowl and sat right down and enjoyed every morsel!  I could eat this breakfast, lunch and dinner! 

Special thanks for Marge for the inspiration and Michelle of Brown Eyed Baker!

Pistachio Nut Ice Cream

Yield: Makes about 1½ quarts
Prep Time: 30 minutes (active) 8 hours (inactive)
Cook Time: 15 minutes
Total Time: 45 minutes

Ingredients:

1 1/3 cups shelled pistachio nuts
¾ cup sugar
2 cups heavy cream
1 cup whole milk
Pinch of salt
6 large egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ teaspoon almond extract
¾ cup pistachios, coarsely chopped

Directions:

1. Grind the 1 1/3 cups of pistachios in a food processor until finely ground, but not to a paste. Set aside.
2. In a medium saucepan, warm the milk, sugar, 1 cup of the cream, and salt, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Stir in the ground nuts. Cover, remove from the heat, and let steep for at least 30 minutes.
3. Strain the warm nut mixture, pressing on the nuts to extract as much liquid as possible, and discard the solids. Return the milk and cream mixture to the saucepan. Pour the remaining 1 cup cream into a large bowl and set a mesh strainer on top. In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the egg yolks. Slowly pour the warm mixture into the egg yolks, whisking constantly, then scrape the warmed egg yolks back into the saucepan.
4. Stir the mixture constantly over medium heat with a heatproof spatula, scraping the bottom as you stir, until the mixture thickens and coats the spatula. Pour the custard through the strainer and stir it into the cream. Add the vanilla extract and almond extract and stir until combined.
5. Refrigerate until cold. Pour into an ice cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturer’s directions. Once finished churning, fold in the ¾ cup pistachios with a rubber spatula.
**You’ll notice this pistachio isn’t bright green like you find in stores. I didn’t use any food coloring, so this is all natural, but you can add a couple drops of green food coloring if you’re looking for a deeper green shade.
(Ingredients and methods/techniques adapted from a combination of The Joy of Cooking, The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz, and Epicurious)





5 comments:

  1. oh man - that makes me want to get an ice cream maker! my grandpa wilders fav ice cream was pistachio, and I've always loved it too. (funny how a food can immediately conjure a memory of someone else, that you loved! matter sandwiches, cantaloupe, english muffins with PB, pumpernickel bread, p. ice cream ... and a nice cold beer, always make me think of him. pap would be cheese biscuits, fried fish and hush puppies, and peach cobbler!) and I've heard about marge's cookin'! (heyyyyy ... "p" for pistachio, and PB, and pumpernickel, and peaches!). love ya! cin

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    1. Mel - You are right on spot! What I would give for a bowl of Pap's peach cobbler or a cheese biscuit!

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  2. Hey! I just happen to be making pistachio ice cream at this very moment! Your recipe sounds delicious! Can't wait to try it:)
    XO
    Marge

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    Replies
    1. Hello Sunshine! (one of my favorite greetings and love the double meaning for you!)A-n-y-w-a-y....this recipe was great but I don't think it was as good as what I had of yours. Of course, this was my very first batch ever.....so I'm not quite an ice cream snob quite yet!

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  3. Awesome post! Got me hungry.

    -Oily

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