Sweet Corn and Coconut Ice Cream:

It is hot out and as such ice cream sounds pretty good!  This ice cream was inspired by a classic Latin American pudding recipe containing the same main ingredients.  To impart a strong corn flavor the corn is removed from the husks and later used as an ingredient in the ice cream.  The husks are retained and steeped in warm milk, which helps impart a strong corn flavor.  I like this recipe because we have such great corn here in New Jersey and right now it both tastes great and is a real bargain.

In this recipe, I kept the corn kernels whole.  If you prefer a more smoothly textured ice cream, feel free to puree it.  If you go this route, you should use approximately 1 cup of the corn puree.  Process it in the same manner you would the whole kernels as indicated.  Recipe follows after the jump…

Ingredients:

3 Cups whole milk

1 Cup heavy cream

¾ Cup coconut milk (unsweetened)

6 Egg yolks

1 Cup sugar

1 Teaspoon vanilla extract (good quality)

3-4 Ears of fresh corn, kernels removed and husks reserved

Pinch of kosher salt

Instructions:

• Blanch the corn by bringing a large pot of water to boil and cooking the corn for three minutes. Remove from water and plunge into an ice bath until completely cooled.
• Remove the corn from the husks and reserve (you should have 1-11/2 cups of corn).
• Gently heat the cream, milk, and ¾ Cups of sugar to simmer (do not boil), stirring often. Once at a simmer, remove from heat and stir in the corn husks.  Stir in the coconut milk.  Cover and allow to steep for 30 minutes.
• Take the egg yolks and remaining ¼ cup of sugar and whisk until combined with the color of the mixture changing to a lighter, pale yellow color. Add a pinch of salt.
• Remove the husks from the milk mixture. Slowly add about 1 cup of the warm milk into the bowl with the egg yolks, stirring often to prevent the eggs from cooking.  Once the cup is incorporated, add the yolk mixture into the pot with the warm milk.
• Over medium low heat, reheat the new mixture until it reaches 185 degrees or just under the boiling point, stirring constantly. Add the vanilla extract and stir it into the mixture.
• Once there, make an ice bath and then place another bowl inside the ice bath. Carefully strain the ice cream base into the empty bowl in the ice bath.  Stir the base every once in a while and allow to cool completely.  Refrigerate 4-6 hours or overnight.
• Process the ice cream base per the directions of your ice cream maker. About 10 minutes prior to finishing the ice cream, stir in the corn kernels directly into the ice cream maker.  Allow to finish processing.
• Place the ice cream into containers and then place them in the freezer. Allow to freeze for at least two hours more to harden.  The ice cream will be best if enjoyed within 3 months (if you can wait that long).