Pistachio Ice Cream

It's here, as I promised.  In case you missed out, I made baklava and pistachio ice cream for a little get together with a couple of my neighbors recently.  Both turned out quite well, I must admit. 

I am really enjoying my DIY ice cream adventure this summer.  Besides being delicious, it is fun to try different things and see what recipes are out there.  The one thing that has been true for all of my homemade ice creams, is that you have to take it out of the freezer a bit before you actually want to scoop it.  Since we do not have a commercial ice cream maker, we don't incorporate as much air into the ice cream, thus it freezes a bit more solid.  If you want ice cream right away, you will need a chisel!  (Not as pretty but still delicious!)

I found this recipe on Epicurious.  It is very straight forward and didn't incorporate green food coloring, as I found in other recipes.  YUCK.  Why do you need to add food coloring?  I did not alter the settings of my camera or do any fancy photoshop technique and as you can see, the ice cream does actually have a natural green color.  No food coloring necessary, to get that not truly natural color of pistachio ice cream you might find at the grocery store.  Not that I am anti-food coloring in general, trust me.  Did you see my rainbow cake?  Yep, lots of food coloring there.  But let's save it for applications that actually NEED food coloring, okay?  

Oh, one thing to note:  The recipe calls for unsalted shelled pistachios.  I actually bought salted pistachios on accident, so I gently rinsed the pistachios in a colander and then spread them out on a sheet pan and put them in a very low oven (around 200F) to dry them out.  It seemed to work.  Still some salt but the ice cream was tasty so it didn't matter!

Anyway, here is the recipe I used for this truly amazing pistachio ice cream:

Pistachio Ice Cream
adapted from Epicurious
makes about 1 quart

Ingredients
1 cup unsalted shelled pistachios (I used salted and tried to get some of the salt off... )
3/4 cup sugar
2 cups whole milk
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
4 large egg yolks
1 cup whipping cream
1/2 cup unsalted shelled pistachios, toasted, coarsely chopped

Directions
Put 1 cup pistachios and 1/4 cup sugar in a food processor and finely grind.  Heat the milk and pistachio/sugar mixture to a boil in a heavy saucepan.  Remove from the heat and stir in the almond extract.

Whisk the egg yolks and the remaining 1/2 cup sugar in a medium bowl.  Slowly ladle the hot pistachio/milk mixture into the yolks, while whisking constantly.  Return the mixture to the saucepan and gently heat on low until the custard thickens.  When the mixture leaves a trail on the back of a metal spoon when you run your finger down it, it is ready.  Ths takes about 10 minutes of constant stirring.  Do not allow the mixture to boil.  Strain into a large bowl and chill overnight (or at least 2 hours).

Stir in 1 cup of whipping cream.  Process in your ice cream maker according to it's instructions.  When it is at the correct consistency, stir in the 1/2 cup pistachios by hand.  Transfer to an air-tight container and freeze overnight.
Printable Recipe

If you are a pistachio fan, go for this ice cream.  Yum.  There really is nothing like homemade ice cream!