Some of the most loyal followers of this blog are our aunts and uncles, so when Thanksgiving rolled around this year, they expected Dana and I to contribute to the spread. Normally I piggyback on my mom’s contribution, but this year apparently I was not getting away so easily. Dana offered to bring pumpkin pies, and suggested that I make ice cream to go along with it, she suggested cinnamon. I LOVE making ice cream, so I thought this was an excellent idea. So, we replied to the group text the family was using to plan the meal that Dana would be bringing pie and Tory would be making ice cream. Apparently Uncle Tim and my cousin Taryn thought that I was kidding, they were surprised to find out that I had an ice cream maker- fools!
I’m not the biggest fan of cinnamon, I’m losing enthusiasm for it in my old age, but in an effort to be less selfish and in the spirit of the holidays; I put my preferences aside and concluded that the cinnamon flavor did make the best accompaniment to a pumpkin pie. I was pretty confident my trusty Perfect Scoop
Here’s what I used: (one other note: pictured here is imitation vanilla, sacrilegious in my opinion, but it’s all I could find in my mom’s cupboard. Someone should make her some Homemade Vanilla Extract for Christmas- hint hint.)
Contrary to what my dad has spent 65 years thinking, you do have to start making ice cream by cooking it, at least a custard based ice-cream anyway. For the cinnamon flavor, the cinnamon sticks need to steep in the cream and milk for a while. Heat the milk, 1 cup of the cream, sugar, and a pinch of salt (if you can remember it unlike me) in a medium saucepan over medium heat with the cinnamon sticks, until warm. Cover, remove from heat, and let it hang out for 1 hour.
When the hour is up, rewarm the mixture and then remove the cinnamon sticks with a slotted spoon. Someone (aka the boyfriend) did a really good job breaking my cinnamon sticks and I had some teeny tiny pieces that slipped through the slots in the spoon, have no fear, they are captured by the mesh strainer later.
Pour the other 1 cup of cream into a large bowl, add the vanilla, and set the mesh strainer on top.
In a different bowl, whisk the egg yolks up and slowly pour in the warm milk mixture, continually whisking, then pour back into the saucepan.
My sister informed me that the reason you slowly add the warm milk mixture is to temper the eggs. This prevents them from scrambling as the warm mixture hits them if it’s too hot. Another way to temper eggs is to add a small amount of the mixture into the eggs and then pour the eggs into the pot. Either way it’s important to stir constantly to fully incorporate the eggs.
Heat this mixture again over medium heat until the mix gets thick, about 6 minutes. Make sure to stir constantly and don’t let it stick to the bottom of the pan.
Pour this through the strainer into your vanilla cream. The strainer thankfully removes any leftover cinnamon bark, and the chunks of the custard. The better you temper your eggs and the more you whisk while it’s heating the more likely you are to have perfectly smooth custard. But hey, we’re just amateurs and that’s why we have a strainer!
Put this bowl in an ice bath (or snow bath like I did- why waste precious ice? I probably should’ve added some water to my snow, to make it an actual “bath”…) and stir until cool. Then stick it in the fridge (or outside when its -25 air temp and you’re inpatient like me) until chilled.
When the mixture is completely chilled all that’s left to do is pour it in your ice cream maker and let it churn it into ice cream. This took about 40 minutes with my Cuisinart ice cream maker
It turns out the cinnamon is not too strong and does indeed go great with Dana’s homemade pumpkin pie! It also takes great by itself as I found out the next day or as Dana found out makes a way better ala mode for apple pie than your standard vanilla ice cream.
- 1 cup whole milk
- ¾ cup sugar
- 10 3 inch cinnamon sticks, broken up
- 2 cups heavy cream
- 5 egg yolks
- 1 t vanilla
- Heat the milk, 1 cup of the cream, sugar, and a pinch of salt in a medium saucepan over medium heat with the cinnamon sticks, until warm. Cover, remove from heat, and let it hang out for 1 hour.
- Rewarm the mixture and remove the cinnamon sticks with a slotted spoon.
- Pour the other 1 cup of cream into a large bowl, add the vanilla, and set the mesh strainer on top.
- In a different bowl, whisk the egg yolks up and slowly pour in the warm milk mixture, continually whisking, then pour back into the saucepan.
- Heat this mixture again over medium heat until the mix gets thick, about 6 minutes.
- Pour this through the strainer into your vanilla cream.
- Put this bowl in an ice bath and stir until cool. Then stick it in the fridge until chilled.
- When the mixture is completely chilled, pour it in your ice cream maker and let it churn it into ice cream. This took about 40 minutes with my Cuisinart ice cream maker. When it’s close to the consistency you want, scoop it into a freezer container and put it in the freezer to continue to harden a bit.
[…] Another thing I like about this pie is that it combines both of our families. I use my Grandma Forsman’s pie crust alongside my husband’s Grandma Britton’s pumpkin filling recipe. AND for an extra special twist, our generation got into the game this year when my sister made and topped the pie with Cinnamon Ice Cream! […]