This made an interesting first stab at ice cream. Eggy, with a strange flavor profile from the Avocado honey. If you haven’t had Avocado honey, it’s hard to describe. It tastes like honey, just with a bit something… extra(?) different(?) added. It’s good, and this ice cream was certainly delicious, but next time I might go a little more traditional in my flavor profile interpretation. The egg content in this recipe is on the heavy side in an attempt to compensate for the almond milk. I mostly followed the recipe from Saucy Kitchen for this first foray because I just wasn’t sure how almond milk would react in an an ice cream. It turns out, it reacted just fine–this ice cream was not as dense and creamy as Ben & Jerry’s, but also gave me no stomach pain from the small amount of dairy I ended up using, either. I’ll take it. I may try slipping some yogurt in next time, and possibly even white sugar. While I normally avoid it like the plague, I think a basic sweet taste might work better in this application. Agave nectar might also prove a nice neutral sweet.
Custardy Almond Milk & Cream Ice Cream with Honey and Cookie Dough
This recipe was cobbled together from: Honey Ice Cream from Saveur Magazine, Almond Milk Ice Cream from The Saucy Kitchen and the Kitchen aid Ice Cream Maker Manual and Recipe Book

2 1/2 c. Almond milk
1 1/2 c. heavy cream
8 egg yolks
3/4 c. honey, I used a local Florida Avocado variety
1 cap vanilla extract
1 vanilla bean, split and scraped
half a batch of chocolate chip cookie dough, chopped into small pieces

At least 24 hours before you intend on making ice cream, put your Kitchen aid ice cream mixing bowl attachment in the freezer.

Over medium, heat the almond milk and cream until just simmering. Remove from the stove.

In a mixing bowl if you’re too short to reach the mixer and your partner in crime is off for a run (or in the bowl of your mixer if you aren’t similarly vertically challenged), beat egg yolks until they lighten in color. This takes awhile and I wouldn’t advise using a whisk. You’re not looking for really really light, but you want a significant shade change. Add honey and beat some more until the honeyed eggs form a ribbon when the beaters are pulled out of the bowl.

Add the creamy milk slowly(!) so you don’t cook the eggs. Keep stirring and adding until all the creamy milk is incorporated. Return the whole shebang to a pan and heat to 170F (this is the safe way to kill all bacteria that may or may not be hanging out in your eggs). Usually I’d toss caution to the wind and eat my eggs raw, but I’m not entirely sure this doesn’t help with the final product. I need an Alton Brown refresher! Cook down until the mixture coats the back of a spoon nicely and leaves a track when your finger is dragged through it.

Cool. This can be done in a cooler, in pans over ice, or on the counter top if you are very patient. You’re looking for room temperature here.

Once the mixture hits room temperature, mix in the vanilla bean and vanilla extract. I used a combo, which was just fine, but I might advise to either go for broke with the vanilla pods and use 3 or ditch them all together for more extract. I would imagine two teaspoons would suffice. If you want any other flavorings, add them now. Rum? Almond extract? Anything in the liquid family.

Move your getup to the freezer if you’re using pans like I did and cool to at least 40F.

Pour into the ice cream mixing bowl and turn the machine on low. Churn 25 minutes, add cookie dough, and churn an additional 5 minutes. You’re looking for the ice cream mixture to double in size and the cookie bits to be well incorporated.

And viola! You have a completely passable ice cream. Makes 6 moderate servings.