I just made coffee ice cream using the recipe from the Ben & Jerry’s book. I am very happy with the results – it reminds me of Stony Field Farm’s Decaf Coffee ice cream.
The recipe calls for freeze-dried coffee, but there is a sidebar about using cold-brewed coffee concentrate instead. You could probably make a concentrate using traditional hot brewing, but I think the cold-brew flavor is better for ice cream and iced drinks.
Here’s my recipe for coffee concentrate, adapted from here:
Put a rounded 1/3 cup of coffee grounds (apparently fine grind doesn’t work as well – use medium course grind) in a non-reactive container (mason jar, stainless steal bowl), and add 1 1/2 c of water. Stir so all the coffee gets wet, and leave soaking for ~12 hours. Note that I use a higher concentration then the link suggests.
When the soaking is done, poor through a fine strainer, cheese cloth or coffee filter. I used a strainer on top of a coffee filter sitting in a funnel – the strainer keeps the filter from getting clogged, and the funnel holds a lot of liquid which forces the coffee
through the filter more quickly.
I recommend adding 5-6 teaspoons per quart of ice cream. This makes for a very mild coffee flavor, which is the way I like it. The recipe I used is Ben & Jerry’s Sweet Cream base, with an extra 2 TBSP sugar. I find that recipes with eggs hold up much better after freezing – I’m curious to know if anyone has found an alternative to eggs that keeps the ice cream from turning icy.
Toddy makes a pitcher/filter combo that looks like it will make the process easier, but if you’re just making ice cream or iced coffee occasionally, it’s probably not worth the 30 bucks.
