Easy Coffee Ice Cream

One of my favourite wedding presents was a beautiful refrigerative ice cream machine.  That machine churned out many wonderful delights, but died a sad death in 2013.  The silver lining I found in this was that it clearly meant that Anthony and I have been together for a long time!  I haven't brought myself to buying a new ice cream machine, as I only really want one of the professional machines and we have had a lot going on this last year.  I have tried some semi-freddos, but haven't loved the texture of them….I'm pretty picky and I was spoiled by my professional machine.

Until now.

I owe an enormous culinary debt to Nigella Lawson. She's clearly had a tough year, but my love for her still burns bright.  I was flipping around the channels during the holidays… and saw Nigella making an ice cream.  It looked beautiful, and I trusted her when she said the texture was amazing.  So, last night I decided to give it a go and today we tried the fruits of my labour.  It was AMAZING.   I made a few modifications to Nigella's original recipe, so here is what I did.

Ingredients:

600 mls thickened cream
1 can (395 grams) sweetened condensed milk
4 Tablespoons instant espresso granules
4 Tablespoons Kahlua

Method:

In either a stand mixer (with the whisk attachment) or with a hand mixer, whip the cream and condensed milk until well combined.  Add the espresso granules and the Kahlua, and whip until soft peaks form.  It took a bit more than five minutes of whipping for this to come together.  All of the coffee granules should be dissolved.

The alcohol in the Kahlua is part of the magic that keeps this ice cream soft and creamy - it prevents the mix from freezing hard.

Scoop the mix into a 1 litre container, and pop in the freezer.  It will take at least five or six hours to freeze.  I can promise you, the texture of this ice cream is amazing and the flavour is divine.  I served this with a bit of fudge sauce, which was a nice flavour match with the coffee.  Eating it straight out of the box is completely acceptable too...

Enjoy!