chai tea ice cream and rhubarb almond tart

It's so hot these days that all I can think about is sweet, delicious and creamy ice cream. I'm pretty sure I've mentioned before how much I love ice cream. Well let me repeat it once more in case you forgot. I. Love. Ice cream. Point finale.

Oh and gelato! And frozen yogurt! And sorbet! In fact, if it's in a sugar cone, I'll eat it. I still dream about that unbelievable chocolate ice cream. I did, however, recently taste a spectacular chocolate gelato from a local gelato shop. Holy eff. (I'm drooling)

But this time I went for something a little different. Something a little more peculiar. I love the smell of my chai tea so I thought to myself, I wonder how it would taste in ice cream from. So I adapted David Lebovitz's Black Currant Tea ice cream into an Indian inspired cold treat.

Well, it pretty much tasted like a churned and frozen chai latte. Yeah, I hear you panting. If you're a fan of chai lattes you'll understand how magical this ice cream is. So rich and fragrant and just melts in your mouth.

 

Rhubarb is also in full swing right now and I still have some growing. Plus I absolutely love marzipan so I always get excited when I make an almond cream tart. It's so easy to make and always comes out so delicious. And the rhubarb? A lovely tart flavour to compliment the ice cream. The perfect summer treat.

Ice cream is actually quite easy to make once you've got the hang of it. It's almost always the same base recipe but with different adaptations. Once you've mastered tempering your eggs and making a creme anglaise, you won't think anything of it. It's not difficult, just a little time consuming. But in my opinion, so worth it.

Happy summer!

For the rhubarb almond tart:

Follow this recipe but instead of pears, use fresh or frozen rhubarb. I used garden rhubarb that I had previously cut into 1 inch pieces and frozen. I wasn't sure if I should thaw them out first or use directly. I ended up using them frozen because I wanted them to retain their shape and it worked well. No extra water. However, they are not mixed with sugar so they are quite tart (but that's rhubarb for you!) If you are using fresh rhubarb, you can cut them into 1 inch chunks and mix with some sugar or even honey before arranging in the almond cream.

Bake as directed and serve with a generous helping of homemade ice cream!

Chai tea ice cream

Yields approximately 1 liter

Adapted from: The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz Black Currant Tea Ice Cream
 

Ingredients

1 cup (250 ml) whole milk (3.25%)

3/4 cup (150 g) sugar

2 cups (500 ml) heavy cream (35% whipping)

1/4 cup (15 g) loose chai tea

5 large egg yolks

Procedure

Warm the milk, sugar, 1 cup (250 ml) of the cream, and tea in a medium sauce pan. Cover, remove from the heat, and let steep at room temperature for 1 hour.

Rewarm the tea-infused milk. Pour the remaining 1 cup (250 ml) of cream into a large bowl and set a mesh strainer on top. In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the egg yolks. Slowly pour the warm mixture into the egg yolks, whisking constantly, then scrape the warmed egg yolks back into the saucepan.

Stir the mixture constantly over medium heat with a heatproof spatula, making sure to scrape the bottom and sides as you stir, until the mixture thickens and coats the spatula (If you run your finger across the back of the spatula and it leaves a definite trail that doesn't flow back together, then it's done!) Make sure to never let the custard get above 85 C (185 F) otherwise you'll have scrambled eggs. Pour the custard through the strainer into the cream, pressing gently on the tea leaves to extract the maximum flavour, then discard tea. Stir until completely cool over an ice bath.

Chill the mixture thoroughly in the refrigerator at least one hour or more, then freeze the mixture in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions. Freeze for a couple of hours to let harden.


Enjoy!