Coffee Ice Cream with Brownies

It seems like I'm the only one that doesn't drink coffee at the office. I just never really got into it. Most people pick it up during college needing something for those long nights up late studying or writing papers. I usually just went to sleep and woke up early to finish studying. And now that I don't drink soda anymore, anytime I drink anything with caffeine, I have a hard time going to sleep whether its coffee, tea or caffeinated soda. For example, right now after having a taste of the coffee ice cream I just made. I can feel it quicken my heart rate and it makes me feel restless. Those are the hardships of making ice cream.

The past few times I've made coffee ice cream, I put oreo chunks mixed into the ice cream with good results. This gave a nice hint of chocolate to the ice cream as well as a bit of crunchiness. It simulated putting ground coffee into the ice cream without overdoing the coffee flavor. I just used pieces of an oreo pie crust because I thought the crust was one big chunk of oreo but it was actually just ground up oreo held in a pie tin. This didn't hold up too well when churned and it ended up disintegrating and dispersing evenly throughout the ice cream. This was okay, but not exactly what I hoped for. That's what I get for being lazy. I only got the pie crust in the first place because I was trying to avoid having to separate all the cookies by hand and I didn't want to buy a whole pack of oreos and have to eat all the leftovers that I didn't use for the ice cream. Next time I'll use real oreos and roughly crush up the cookies to add to the ice cream. So, that's the lesson of the day. There's no shortcuts to success, you just gotta do what you gotta do.

At the request of my brother, I put brownies in this batch. I figured since it's a popular topping in all the frozen yogurt places these days it must be a good combination. However, this doesn't really give the same contrast in texture as oreos. While chopping up the brownies, I thought the "more done" edge pieces would give a little more crunch so I added some to the pile of middle pieces I chopped up. The end result was pretty good but I think I'll try crushed oreo cookies next time which will be soon because I have to use up the rest of the coffee before it gets too stale.

The coffee flavor is a bit strong for my taste, but then again I'm not the biggest coffee fan so anything will probably taste too strong for my taste buds. My taste testers (coffee lovers) have said that it tastes good though so this will be one I keep in my ice cream arsenal. I used Italian Roast whole coffee beans by a widely known Seattle based coffee shop for this one. Another recipe in my top 5. Next I'll try a sorbet. Something with cranberry for Christmas. I also want to make cornflake cookies. Maybe I'll try the cereal milk ice cream I've been meaning to try too.

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Coffee Ice Cream with Brownies
adapted from The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz

Ingredients
1.5 cups heavy cream
1.5 cups whole milk
1.5 cups coffee beans
3/4 cup sugar
pinch of salt
5 egg yolks
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp finely ground coffee (i left this out)
1 cup chopped brownie bits

Directions
1. Heat milk, 1/2 cup of cream, sugar, salt and coffee beans until just before boiling (when steam starts to come off the mixture). Remove from heat and steep for 1 hour (or less if you want it less strong).
2. Reheat bean and milk mixture and add to yolks while whisking to make a custard. Heat custard until thickened stirring constantly.
3. Strain out beans and add mixture to remaining 1 cup of heavy cream squeezing out as much liquid as possible from beans. Chill in ice bath until cool. Add vanilla.
4. Chill in refrigerator until cold and churn in ice cream machine.
5. After churning, alternate layering ice cream with brownies into storage container.