Malted Milk Ice Cream

My current food obsession is with my new ice cream maker and David Lebovitz’s superb book The Perfect Scoop.

So far I have tried his vanilla ice-cream recipe (superb), his turron ice-cream recipe (not universally loved due to excess of orange peel) and his frozen yoghurt (good and easy). On the list to try include his “tin roof” ice cream, coconut ice cream, green tea (matcha) ice cream and of course the king of ice creams, salted butter caramel.

Most recently I have been addicted to his recipe for malted milk ice cream which you know will be brilliant even before you’ve made it. Everyone loves malted milkshakes but they are often let down by the quality of the ice cream that goes in them. This combines a rich, thick, smooth custard with the nostalgic flavour of malt (well, nostalgic for 50s Americana things that British kids only experienced vicariously through things like Happy Days and Back to the Future, and ersatz British versions of US diners – think Wimpy and Ed’s Easy Diner).

Anyway, I’ve adapted Lebovitz’s recipe a little. A curious thing in The Perfect Scoop is that although the author expresses his preference for ice creams made with a ratio of 2:1 double cream and full-fat milk, quite often the recipes instead call for 2:1 double cream and single cream. If you use malt powder like Horlicks (which contains wheat so this isn’t gluten-free) this causes the recipe to become rather thick, and so I think milk is a better bet.

I made this yesterday and it was thought to be a little too sweet, so perhaps dial down the sugar a little. I would like to substitute the Horlicks for malt syrup or maltose powder in future to see how it affects the texture. A great tip in the book is to add salt to sharpen up the flavours, which really is miraculous.

Malted milk ice cream

250ml full-fat milk
500ml double cream
150g sugar (try 125g)
3/4 teaspoon vanilla essence
good pinch of salt
6 yolks from large eggs
90g malt powder (Horlicks)

Put most of the cream and the malt powder in a separate bowl, whisk thoroughly and place a wire mesh sieve on top. Combine the milk, a little of the cream, sugar, salt and vanilla essence in a heavy-bottomed pan and bring to the boil. Separate the eggs and whisk until well mixed in a separate bowl. Allow the milk mixture to cool for a minute or two and add to the whisked eggs, keeping the mixture moving so you don’t accidentally make scrambled eggs. Add the mixture back to the pan and on a medium heat until you have made a thick custard (the mixture should cling to your spatula), stirring all the time so bits don’t form. It’s really important that you make a thick, “custardy” tasting custard and don’t quit too early otherwise the ice cream won’t have the flavour you want. In my experience being a bit wimpy and pulling the mixture off too early during this stage is the main reason for less than stellar ice cream. Quickly add the custard to the bowl of cream-malt mixture and stir until well mixed.

If you have an ice cream maker with a refrigerated unit like I do, there’s no reason not to add the mixture straight into the machine and churn until set (takes about 50 minutes from warm on the Cuisinart). If you don’t have one you need to chill the mixture down first.

Serve with a load of maltesers smashed on top.