Vietnamese Coffee Ice Cream

Because we weren't disgustingly full enough from our pizza adventures (See: Bacon Jam and Margherita Masterpieces), we decided a dessert course was in order. To our credit we did walk around (and repeatedly jump up and down) on the beach in between. We needed something that would pack a punch if our dessert had any chance of holding up to the delightful pizzas we started the day with. This powerful and sweet Vietnamese Coffee Ice Cream was just the thing to end our adventure.

Lars and I jump for joy over our delicious day of eating. This is take 37 of 42.

Courtney got in on the jumping merriment too. 

Vietnamese Coffee Ice Cream
From Food & Wine
Servings: 1 quart
Time: 40 minutes plus freezing

2 cups whole milk
1 cup plus 2 tbsp sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup ground Vietnamese Coffee
Pinch of salt
6 large egg yolks

It's important to utilize your kitchen space as efficiently as possible.

1. Combine the whole milk, condensed milk, ground coffee and salt in a medium saucepan and bring to a simmer. Remove from heat and let stand for 20 minutes. 
2. Strain through a fine sieve lined with several layers of moistened cheesecloth.
3. Return the milk mixture to the saucepan and bring to a simmer.
4. Whisk the egg yolks in a separate bowl until slightly pale. 
5. Gradually whisk in the hot milk. Refrigerate until cold
6. Freeze in an ice cream maker. Then transfer to a container and freeze until firm enough to scoop.

Attempts to strain our mixture proved unsuccessful...

One of my favorite activities is making my way over to Cafe TH on Saturdays and recovering from all the heavy studying and philosophical pondering of my Friday night with an insanely strong and delicious Vietnamese Coffee. The condensed milk gives the perfect creaminess to that robust blend. This ice cream perfectly encapsulated that experience to put a refreshing end to our day at the beach. Our only real regret is that we had trouble straining the mixture (sadly cheesecloth was not available), so some grounds remained, leading to minor bitterness which really only made our ice cream that much stronger. I would definitely recommend making this a day ahead of time to give everything time to properly strain.

Courtney must have bitten into some of the bitter grounds. That's surely the only explanation. Also, can you guess which one of the two has a Ph.D.?

Oh yeah, I almost forgot, Los Angeles is really pretty.