Earl Grey Tea Ice Cream

O hai! Jus cheking bakside. All gud. Proseed.

Man, do I wish this Earl Grey Tea ice cream were sitting in my freezer right now on this hot-ass weekend, but it’s not. I made this ice cream about a month ago, and it is long gone!

In the winter months I buy a big box of assorted teas that are put on the market for holiday gifts – you know, the ones with four each of sixteen different varieties. I really don’t care which tea bag I use to steep my morning cup of tea; I have no preference. But that changed with a batch of truffles I made a few months ago.

I made Earl Grey tea truffles (along with basil, port, and curry truffles) a few months ago, and it turned out that I absolutely loved the Earl Grey truffles. I couldn’t stop eating them. The Earl Grey truffles went long before the others.

Then I left an empty tea cup with an Earl Grey tea bag still in it on my computer desk. I kept getting wafts of this wonderful smell, and realized it was coming from the tea cup, so picked up the cup and started huffing what I can only describe as my most favorite scent in the world – fragrant tea olive (nothing to do with olives or the actual plant tea comes from, but the flowers are used to scent teas).

I know that what I smelled in the tea cup is the sweet, floral, citrus smell of Bergamot oil used in Earl Grey tea, but this particular used cup and tea bag smelled like fragrant tea olive flowers to me.

Fragrant tea olive (Osmanthus fragrans) is an evergreen shrub with fruity, sweet-smelling flowers, that unfortunately does not grow as far North as Pennsylvania (add fragrant tea olive to the list of requirements for the next place I live, along with Waffle House and no snow), but it is in almost every backyard in the state I grew up in, South Carolina. The tiny flowers are barely visible, but the intoxicating scent can travel blocks on a breeze.

Sorry to be all dreamy about this scent when I’m not capable of providing smell-o-vision, but it really is a scent that takes me back to playing outdoors as a child on cool fall, winter, and spring nights (grown outdoors, it blooms every month with an “R”, or so the saying goes).

So, if I had to name a favorite tea at the moment, it would be Earl Grey tea. After a few days of huffing the dirty tea cup (yeah, I kept it on the desk), I decided to make Earl Grey tea ice cream.

Earl Grey Tea Ice Cream
makes about 1 quart

1 cup whole milk
2 cups half and half (can use heavy cream for a richer ice cream)
3/4 cup sugar
5-6 Earl Grey tea bags
5 egg yolks

• Warm the milk, half and half, and sugar in a saucepan. Remove from heat, place tea bags in the pan, cover and steep at room temperature for an hour. Remove tea bags.
• Rewarm tea-infused milk. Whisk egg yolks together in a separate bowl. Slowly pour the milk mixture into the bowl with egg yolks, whisking constantly.
• Return the milk and egg mixture to the saucepan, and cook over medium heat, stirring and scrapping the bottom of the pan constantly until the mixture thickens to a custard and coats the spatula.
• Cool the mixture, and freeze in your ice cream maker.

Truffles

For all you Valentine’s Day haters, this is not a Valentine’s post! It’s really more of a Christmas/birthday post, so go ahead and read without spite for superfluous, romantic holidays that have the propensity to make you either feel like shit if you're out of a relationship, or inadequate if you're in a relationship.

For a while there I was making truffles for Christmas gifts, but then I moved far away from my family (the truffle recipients), and the idea of busting out truffles the day before traveling home for Christmas did not appeal. My Dad still requests homemade truffles every year, but I haven’t obliged in the past four or so years. Pretty cruel of me.

The dead of winter is a slower time for me, so is a better time for making truffles. It just so happens that my Dad’s birthday is in the middle of February…and he’s getting truffles this year!! (Dad, I don’t think you read this blog that regularly, but if you see this before you get a box in the mail, you got truffles!)

I’m gonna be ballsy and just go ahead and say… these are the best truffles I’ve made so far!

I follow the Joy of Cooking’s recipe for truffles ( ½ cup heavy cream and 8 ounces of bittersweet chocolate) to make the truffle part, and I live by the philosophy of “mo’ chocolate, mo’ better,” so prefer my truffles enrobed in chocolate instead of rolled in cocoa, nuts, or other ingredients.

Colored Fiestaware helped keep the flavors straight, especially when the cream was mixed into the chocolate.

I made four types of truffles by adding ingredients to the cream, or infusing the cream with flavors before adding chocolate to make the ganache that gets rolled into truffle balls. This is what I made:

Port Truffle
I didn’t think I’d like the port truffles, but once they were coated in chocolate, the flavor was subtle and enhanced by the bittersweet chocolate shell. Very classic!

Basil Truffle
I loved the basil ice cream I made last summer so much, I had to try making a basil truffle. These truffles have the same unexpected, mysterious, herbal flavor of the basil ice cream. For the adventurer, not weenies! Bittersweet chocolate enrobes the magic flavors.

Curry Truffle
Curry was made for chocolate! My favorite chocolate bar is the Naga bar from Vosges – so aromatic, spicy, and sweet. These truffles are a close replica. I like a milk chocolate casing on these truffles.

Earl Grey Tea Truffle
I’m torn between honoring the curry or the Earl Grey Tea truffle as my favorite. The Earl Grey is sweetly floral, and reminds me fondly of my Granddad’s tall glasses of cold sweet tea mixed liberally with evaporated milk. Milk chocolate covers these tea truffles!

Basic Truffle
makes about 35 truffles

8 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
½ cup heavy cream

• Scald heavy cream in a small saucepan on the stove.
• Add hot cream to chopped chocolate, and stir until chocolate is melted and thoroughly incorporated.
• Store in refrigerator until chilled (1-2 hours).
• Scoop out a small portion of chilled chocolate ganache, and, with your hands, roll into balls about the size of…a truffle!

8 ounces chocolate (your choice), chopped

• Melt 2/3 of chopped chocolate in a double boiler, stirring constantly.
• To temper, use a candy thermometer and bring chocolate to 110-113°.
  
• Remove from heat, and add remaining 1/3 chocolate, stirring constantly for about 8-10 minutes, or until the chocolate cools to 79-80°.
• Re-heat chocolate to 90°, and dip truffles quickly in chocolate.
  
• Place on wax paper-covered tray to cool.

This truffle dipper was fashioned out of a wire coat hanger. Very helpful!

Port Truffle
Instead of ½ cup heavy cream, use 1/3 cup heavy cream, then add port to heavy cream until the liquid reaches the ½-cup mark.

Basil Truffle
Tear about 10 large basil leaves into pieces, and add to hot, heavy cream. Set aside to steep for about 30 minutes. Remove basil before adding to chocolate.

Curry Truffle
Add 1 teaspoon curry powder and about 15 cardamom seeds to hot, heavy cream. Set aside to steep for about 30 minutes. Remove cardamom seeds before adding to chocolate. Add 2 teaspoons curry powder to melted chocolate used to enrobe truffles. Dust finished truffles with curry powder when chocolate shell is completely cooled.

Earl Grey Tea Truffle
Steep two or three Earl Grey tea bags in hot, heavy cream for 30 minutes. Squeeze out tea bags, and remove.