Believe it or not, in 1984 Ronald Reagan designated July as National Ice Cream Month, recognizing this sweet fare as a fun and nutritious treat that deserves to be observed with “appropriate ceremonies and activities.” Because, ahem, dairy’s a food group, right?
Any how, he was clearly onto something. Americans lead the way in ice cream consumption worldwide – averaging about 20 quarts a year or about 3 cones a week. Still, we’re pretty boring when it comes to flavors. Vanilla pulls in 20-29% of all sales, and chocolate’s a distant second with about 9%.
So we’ve decided to stir things up a bit by creating a Poland-centric flavor of ice cream. Scandinavia does it with salty licorice and Japan with green tea and adzuki bean. And after a little bit of brainstorming we narrowed the essential flavors of Poland down to beets, poppy seeds, sour cream, and chocolate.
Why chocolate? We hear you when you say that chocolate’s not from Poland – but this is ice cream. And when it comes to ice cream, you allowed to let a few things slide. Plus, the whole KMIP team is die-hard chocoholics so there is no way we were not going to include it, one way or another.
Now. Without further ado, here’s our recipe for Beet Ice Cream with Poppy Seeds and Chocolate Sour Cream Swirl.
Ingredients
3/4 cup pureed roasted beets
1 3/4 cups whole milk
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
6 egg yolks
2/3 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 Tbsp orange zest
3 Tbsp poppy seeds
1 batch chocolate sour cream swirl (recipe below)
Special equipment: Ice cream maker
1. Bring milk and heavy cream to a simmer over medium-high heat (making sure it doesn’t boil over). As soon as bubbles start to form, remove from heat and cool to room temperature.
2. Meanwhile, whisk the egg yolks, sugar, and salt. Add to the dairy mixture and stir over low heat until the mixture begins to thicken – about 10 minutes.
3. Remove from heat and stir in remaining ingredients. Cool mixture completely in an ice bath or overnight in the refrigerator.
4. Churn custard according to your ice cream maker’s instructions.
5. Transfer one-third of the ice cream to a 2-quart airtight container and drizzle one-third of the chocolate swirl over it. Repeat in two more layers with remaining ice cream and swirl. Freeze at least 8 hours before eating.
Chocolate Sour Cream Swirl
3/4 cup sour cream, room temperature
5 oz semi-sweet chocolate, chopped
3 Tbsp light corn syrup (or honey)
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1. Melt chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over a pot of simmering water. Once melted, remove from heat and let chocolate cool slightly.
2. Whisk together the sour cream, corn syrup or honey, and vanilla extract. Slowly add the chocolate until well combined. Let cool in the refrigerator for about 15-30 minutes or until scoop-able.