May 30, 2021
Summer weather has arrived here in Ohio. Kevin and I have been going on longer walks to soak up some of the sunshine. Inevitably, fifteen minutes into the walk, I often begin to feel beads of sweat gather on my forehead. I still try my best to power through the walks until streams of sweat force me to head back indoors. To help stay cool during the hotter weather, I dusted off my ice cream machine and started making homemade ice cream. Ice cream is definitely one of my favorite year-long treats. I usually like to pack my freezer with a couple pints of ice cream here and there. Kevin’s favs are cookies and cream and chocolate chip cookie dough. I gravitate towards strawberry ice cream and green tea most of the time. Lately though, I’ve been experimenting with creating new flavor combinations. My latest creation, sesame raspberry ice cream, combines two flavors I love dearly into one. The sesame component is inspired by my love of ji ma wu, a sweet soup made of grounded black sesame seeds served throughout my household growing up. The raspberry component is inspired by my love of raspberry sorbet. When paired together in ice cream, the combination is delightfully nutty and fruity. I love the contrast of the earthy, nuttiness from the sesame powder paired with the tangy, sweetness from the frozen raspberries. The contrasting yet complementary flavors remind me just a bit of peanut butter and jelly, another classic pairing. The ice cream starts with the classic foundation of sugar, milk, and cream. Folding in the sesame powder and swirls of homemade jam was the fun part. The very first time I had sesame ice cream was as a child growing up in Brooklyn. My super traditional Chinese parents would ship my brothers and I straight to Sunday school on weekends to learn to read and write Chinese. My brothers hated the very thought of having to give up half of their weekend for Sunday school. I didn’t mind the extra schooling one bit because Chinatown had some of the best restaurants within a short walking distance from where we attended Sunday school. One such establishment was the Chinatown Ice Cream Factory. The shop had all sorts of unique flavors way before a lot of those flavors became popular. I was always captivated by the assorted Asian-inspired flavors of ice cream on the menu listed under regular flavors. Green tea, lychee, red bean, mango, sesame, and coconut were common occurrences on the menu. Flavors likes vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry were considered exotic flavors. As much as I wanted to try all of the flavors on the menu, I just could not justify how expensive it would have been. Little by little, I would swing by on special occasions to get just a scoop or two of each flavor. The sesame flavor in particular was sweet, nutty, and nostalgic like a frozen version of ji ma wu. I loved the sweet soup so much as a kid, I would make the instant packet variety whenever the cravings kicked it. I had the urge to recreate those distinctive textures and flavors in the sesame dessert soup I loved dearly as a child. Pairing sesame with raspberry just seemed natural.
For the sesame raspberry ice cream:
· ½ cup granulated sugar
· ¼ cup sesame powder
· 1 cup whole milk
· 1 cup heavy cream
· ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
· 2 tablespoons homemade or store-bought raspberry jam
· frozen raspberries, crushed, for adding into ice cream and serving
· black sesame seeds, for serving
Directions:
1) Follow the instructions on the ice cream maker to prepare the freezer bowl for churning. I placed the freezer bowl from my ice cream maker into the coldest part of my freezer the day before I planned to make homemade ice cream.
2) The next day, prepare the ice cream mixture by whisking together the granulated sugar and sesame powder in a large bowl. Gently pour in the whole milk, heavy cream, and vanilla extract. Whisk to combine all ingredients. Wrap the bowl with a sheet of plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for 1-2 hours.
3) When ready to make ice cream, remove the chilled ice cream mixture from the refrigerator. Transfer the freezer bowl from the freezer to the ice cream maker. Turn the ice cream maker on. Gently pour the mixture into the freezer bowl as it churns. The ice cream mixture will begin to thicken up around the five-minute mark. Slowly drop in half of the raspberry jam and crushed raspberries. Let the ice cream maker continue churning for another 10-15 minutes. Turn off machine once the ice cream reaches desired thickness. Stir in remaining raspberry jam and frozen raspberries. Top with frozen raspberries and black sesame seeds, if desired. Serve immediately.
Takeaways: When testing out this recipe, I tried dropping in whole frozen raspberries. The chunks of whole frozen raspberries were a bit too large for the ice cream. When adding in the raspberry jam, I found waiting a bit until the ice cream mixture started to thicken up before adding the jam resulted in separate swirls of jam throughout the ice cream. Adding the jam too early when mixing resulted in the jam incorporating directly into the sesame ice cream. While not a bad idea, I prefer having distinct swirls of jam within the sesame ice cream.
I served my sesame raspberry ice cream in sugar cones coated with a chocolate coating made with melted semisweet chocolate chips and coconut oil and dipped in sprinkles. I chilled the chocolate coated sugar cones dipped in sprinkles for 15 minutes in the refrigerator prior to serving with scoops of the sesame raspberry ice cream.