Cotton Candy Ice Cream
Homemade ice cream has always been an endeavor. Did you know it takes 5.8 pounds of whole milk and one pound of cream to make one gallon of ice cream? That's not exactly a simple afternoon kitchen project. So for this episode of Cooking With Heat, we used a little help from KitchenAid.
The only downside to making your own ice cream is all the waiting. Seriously, first you need to freeze the bowl for like 7 hours. Then, once you're done cooking the cream and egg mixture, you need to let that cool down to like 40º in the fridge, which can take hours... This is why Ice Cream is the second top selling treat in the U.S.
For our June theme, we wanted to find the most quintessential flavor of ice cream for a state fair. Naturally, we landed on Cotton Candy, as that covers two major points on our June list.
Now, you do need a flavor syrup for this recipe. You can't just add cotton candy to ice cream and expect it to turn out tasting like cotton candy, although we totally did that at the end of the recipe.
KitchenAid Ice Cream Maker Attachment
Ingredients
1 cup milk
2 cups heavy cream
⅓ cup granulated sugar
¾ cup cotton candy syrup (We found the Jelly Belly kind at Wegmans. It's alright.)
2 pinches salt
5 egg yolks
1 tsp vanilla
optional: red/pink food coloring
optional: add cotton candy to ice cream while churning
Directions
Combine the milk, whipping cream, half the sugar, salt, and vanilla in a saucepan and bring to a boil over medium heat, whisking intermittently.
While heating, combine the egg yolks and the other half of sugar in a large bowl and whisk to combine. Then add the cotton candy syrup and mix.
When the milk mixture has come to a boil, pour ⅓ of it into the egg mixture and stir. Then pour another ⅓ and stir, and then the final ⅓ and stir.
Next, pour the entire mixture back into the saucepan and heat, stirring constantly for 2 minutes, but do not let it come to a boil. If you want to add pink food coloring, add it now.
Then transfer the mixture to a new bowll, allow it to come to room temperature and then refrigerate for 1-2 hours.
After mixture is chilled, follow the manufacturer's instructions on the ice cream maker to make the ice cream.
Add a handful of cotton candy into the ice cream during its last 3 minutes of churning.
When serving, top with extra cotton candy as garnish.
Bonus: We had a beautiful 'cotton candy' sunset during the show, with a little bit of rainbow.
