hello this is chef john from food wishes comm with italian crema ice cream that's
right one minute I'm watching Killiney in the next minute I'm trying to make
gelato a la crema in fact I almost called this video crema ice cream from
killing Eve except then I remembered that's one of my good friends on YouTube
thing but anyway all that aside this might be the best vanilla ice cream I've
ever had which is kind of ironic since there's actually no vanilla in it as
you're about to see so with that let's go hang get started with our base which
will begin with some whole milk alright not skim milk not low-fat and then to
that we will add a little touch of white sugar followed by five large egg yolks
alright four is not enough and six is too many so we'll go ahead and add five
and give it a whisk and then once we feel like that's been thoroughly and
thoughtfully mixed together we'll head to the stove where we're gonna place
this over medium heat and cook it stirring with a spatula pretty much
constantly until it gets hot and steamy and thickens slightly and when I say
slightly I mean it alright this is not going to turn into some kind of thick
custard it's basically just gonna go from something that sort of looks and
feels like milk to something that looks and feels more like heavy cream and as
this gets close you're definitely gonna see some steam and I can never be
exactly sure how long this is gonna take you but I'll guess it's somewhere around
ten minutes but do not go by time go by feel and appearance and when it gets all
hot and steamy and slightly thick like this you're done and sometimes its
thickness is referred to as being able to coat the back of a spoon which I show
you but everything slips off this silicone spatula so it's kind of hard to
see but anyway what we'll do once we think that's cooked long enough is turn
off the heat and immediately pour in the last ingredient our heavy cream which is
going to stop this from cooking any further and then once that's in we'll
remove this from the stove and immediately pass it through a fine mesh
strainer because even if we did everything perfectly which we did
there's gonna be little particles of white that were kind of stuck to the
yolk that are gonna coagulate and harden up and you can see those in the bottom
of the strainer and that really does not look like
something you want an ice cream so we'll go ahead and strain that and that's it
all we need to do is let this cool down to room temp before we wrap it up and
pop it in the fridge to chill completely oh and it was right about here when I
remembered I'd forgotten to throw in a pinch of salt which might seem minor but
it's not it's major all right that little pinch is gonna make everything
taste better and believe it or not a little sweeter so I went ahead and
stirred that in and then like I said we will let this cool down to room temp and
pop it in the fridge overnight and I know you want to make it now but you
really shouldn't I mean as long as you chill it a few hours in its cold it will
still work in the machine but I think the taste and texture are both gonna be
better if you give it about 8 to 12 hours in the fridge so you'll have to
decide I mean you are after all the villanelle of making vanilla less ice
cream well but personally I do highly recommend it goes in the fridge
overnight so that's what I did and the next day I pulled it out and carefully
poured that into my ice cream maker and as I mentioned in every ice cream video
if you don't have one of these type of machines you can still make this and
I'll tell you how in the blog post there are actually quite a few effective
alternative methods but having said that these type of ice cream makers are
relatively inexpensive and actually do a very good job and what happens with
these is you keep that bowl in the freezer and as it spins that ice cream
base freezes to the surface which is then scraped off and mixed back into the
mixture and as this runs it will get colder and thicker and creamier oh and
if it's a really hot day I always feel like putting a towel over this kind of
insulates it and maybe helps it freeze a little better who knows that might not
have any effect but I do it anyway oh and another thing I like to do is grab a
spoon and give this a little sample when it gets to what I call the milkshake
stage well we had that will definitely bring all the boys to the yard and even
though the texture is not going to be quite right yet you will get a little
sneak preview on just how amazing this flavor is so at this point I was very
happy but anyway I'll let that continue churning until it was as thick as it was
gonna get which for these machines is basically gonna look like a soft-serve
ice cream and in case you're keeping score at home that took me 20 minutes so
we will go ahead and clean off the dasher
and then very quickly wrap this up and pop it in the freezer until fully frozen
and I generally just do it in this canister but if you while you could
transfer it into another container although that can be risky because
you're probably gonna eat like half of it as you transfer it in so I'm gonna go
ahead and press some plastic on the top and then use a plate for a lid since I
lost the one that came with it and will transfer that into the freezer until
it's properly frozen and firm at which point we can go ahead and serve some up
by priming the bottom of our dish or cup with half a scoop and then topping that
with the full money scoop oh yeah that is a nice looking scoop if I do say so
myself although if you're gonna take pictures
make sure you freeze the glass so it looks all nice and frosty and the ice
cream won't melt as quick but anyway it's fine this is not gonna
be around long so I grabbed a spoon and dug in and as far as the texture goes
this was absolutely perfect all right beautifully dense and creamy
with absolutely no crystallization and by the way in Italy this is a gelato not
an ice cream because they use a machine that introduces less air into the
product so that it's even denser but this was actually very close and as far
as the taste goes I really do think you're gonna be blown away all right for
many of you this will be the first true ice cream you've ever eaten since in the
absence of flavorings like vanilla what you're tasting here is just pure milk
and sweet cream with nothing else getting in the way which is why my
favorite would eat this stuff is as is totally plain just me a spoon and my
crema of course having said that I can't end the video without showing you a
couple toppings but nobody really needs to see the normal ones so let me show
you a couple abnormal ones the first would be some freshly ground espresso
coffee beans which might seem strange but if you like coffee or coffee ice
cream this really is an amazing combination and while you think it might
be gritty the texture is actually surprisingly Pleasant and if I had to
pick a way to eat this besides plain this would be it just absolutely
fantastic plus you get a little buzz so that might be my favorite topping next
up I'm going to show you Michelle's favorite which believe it or not is
olive oil and sea salt no we're not kidding
we will drizzle on a little bit of extra-virgin olive oil and then sprinkle
over a pinch a nice flaky sea salt and I'm not exactly sure why this works so
amazingly well but it does write the contrast between that sweet creamy ice
cream and that fatty slightly bitter oil with those little crunchy pops of salts
really is one of the most unique frozen dessert experiences of all time so if
you're feeling a little adventurous please give that a try
Bob regardless of whether you eat this crema plain or top it with something
strange it will still be as villanelle might say to die for which is why I
really do hope you give this a try soon so head over to food wishes calm for all
the ingredient amounts of mournful as usual and as always enjoy
you