Fiber, probiotics, and ice cream

People often ask me why I bother to make ice cream when it’s so easy to buy it. First of all, I don’t always make my own ice cream. Sometimes I buy it.  But often I want to have a flavor I don’t see at supermarkets or even ice cream shops. Like lemon, or coffee with chocolate-covered espresso beans, or some such. So I make my own.

But the best reason to make ice cream is this – you know what’s in it. That’s not always true when you buy it.

I’m diligent about reading the ingredient listing on ice cream cartons now because I recently read a trade magazine article on ice cream additives. I learned that when manufacturers want to modify “the sweetener system,” as the article put it, they have to make up for the bulk lost when sugar is replaced by aspartame or sucralose. So they add fiber. However,the article warned, the amount has to be carefully calibrated because adding too much fiber may cause diarrhea or flatulence. Not exactly what you expect from a dish of chocolate chip.

Manufacturers are also adding probiotics to ice cream because they believe consumers are eager to consume probiotics. Apparently they are not so eager that they will simply eat real, plain yogurt – as opposed to those sweet, fruity dessert-style yogurts that have all the benefits stripped away. Manufacturers believe that consumers want their probiotics in the form of ice cream.

So thanks to food chemists, we can eat ice cream and get fiber and probiotics and artificial sweeteners. I thought ice cream was supposed to be a treat rather than a treatment.

I’d rather get fiber from roasted broccoli with olive oil and Aleppo pepper or lentils simmered with some merguez sausage. I’d rather get my probiotics from yogurt mixed with fresh clementine segments and chopped pecans. I’d rather get my “sweetener system” from cane sugar.

When I make my own ice cream, I flavor it with a real vanilla bean or chocolate. I add fresh fruit or warm spices like cinnamon or nutmeg. I use real cream and milk. And I sweeten it with sugar. Just enough sugar. Here’s a recipe I especially like.

Coffee with chocolate-covered espresso beans

2 cups whole milk
1 cup heavy cream
1/3 cup finely ground espresso or dark roast coffee
5 egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar
1/2  cup chocolate-covered espresso beans

Combine milk and cream in saucepan and warm over low heat. Add the ground coffee, stir and heat until it’s about to simmer. Shut off heat, cover and let the mixture steep for half an hour or so. Give it a stir from time to time.

Half fill a large bowl or saucepan with ice or ice water and set aside.

In another saucepan, whisk egg yolks and sugar until thick and pale. Strain the coffee mixture carefully to get rid of the coffee grounds, then rewarm it. Stir it very gradually
into the egg mixture. When it’s all incorporated, cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until it thickens enough to coat the spoon. Do not let it boil.

Place the pan of coffee custard in the bowl with the ice or ice water and continue to stir until it cools.

Cover with plastic wrap pressed against the surface so it doesn’t form a skin on top. Chill for at least 12 hours.

Put the coffee beans in a zip-lock bag and smack with a rolling pin or a heavy bottle until they’re chopped up. Set aside.

Churn the ice cream mixture in your machine, following manufacturer’s instructions. When it’s almost ready, mix in the chopped chocolate-covered coffee beans. Store tightly covered in freezer until ready to serve. Makes one quart.