by drbabs
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1
Large English cucumber, peeled, seeded, and roughly chopped
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2/3 cups
packed mint leaves
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3/4 cups
granulated sugar
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2 cups
whole milk or half and half
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1 cup
heavy cream
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1 tablespoon
vanilla extract
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4
large egg yolks
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2 tablespoons
honey
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1
generous pinch kosher salt
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1/2-1 cup
very finely chopped white chocolate (optional)
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Puree the cucumber in a blender or food processor. You should have a scant 2/3 cup of puree, some of which will be liquid. You're going to strain out the solids, so this is fine. (Alternatively, if you have a juicer, you could simply juice the cucumber.)
Ask the hotline about this step!Put the mint leaves and the sugar into the food processor bowl. Process until the mint is finely ground. (Or you could grind them together with a mortar and pestle. )
Ask the hotline about this step!In a medium saucepan, warm the milk and heavy cream over medium heat. Stir occasionally.
Ask the hotline about this step!Whisk the egg yolks until smooth, then add the sugar and mint mixture and whisk until thoroughly combined. When the milk mixture steams and is hot but not simmering, whisk 1/2 cup of the hot milk into the egg mixture to temper the egg yolks.
Ask the hotline about this step!Take the saucepan off the heat and stir in the tempered egg mixture.
Ask the hotline about this step!Return the saucepan to the cooktop over medium heat. Add the honey and salt. Cook, stirring, until the mixture is 175-180 degrees, or thick enough to coat the back of the spoon, about 5 minutes. Do not allow the mixture to boil. (When you draw your finger across the spoon, it should leave a clear mark through the custard. )
Ask the hotline about this step!Strain the cucumber through a fine mesh strainer into the custard. Stir in the vanilla extract.
Ask the hotline about this step!Cool the custard somewhat in an ice water bath and then strain it (to strain out some of the mint leaves) into a pitcher. Refrigerate till cold.
Ask the hotline about this step!Pour the custard into your ice cream freezer and churn according to the manufacturer's directions. When the ice cream is starting to thicken (and look like ice cream), about 5 minutes before it's ready, pour in the white chocolate.
Ask the hotline about this step!It's good, right?!
Ask the hotline about this step!FYI – I made this recipe (finally), I am slowly working my way through saved F52 recipes. As I mentioned a couple months ago, I don't use eggs in my ice cream, in its place I always add a tablespoon extra heavy cream per yolk instead. Love that mint, excellent & refreshing, thanks for sharing your creation!
I'm so happy you liked it! I have been making ice cream without eggs also...I prefer it that was as well.
What a delightful idea.......love the combo and like the idea of salted (somewhat savoury) peanuts
Just a postscript here . . . . I used a scoop of this in a gin and seltzer float, which was heavenly on a hot weekend afternoon. Decadent, but tasty indeed. Plan to make this ice cream again when our blueberries are ripe, at which time I'll put together a quick blueberry lime sauce as a topping. Love this recipe!! ;o)
Thanks so much for your great commentary--blueberry lime sauce sounds heavenly--will have to try that!
Does sound really good plain. Yesterday I made a peanut butter ice cream using fresh ground peanuts and I added the mini-choco chips too!...Inspired by your mini-white chips! Will be posting that one soon.
this sounds great - when we fix our ice cream machine I will definitely try it!
Thanks, all of you, for your nice comments! (I will try to get a picture up before the deadline.) @lapadia--I don't love white chocolate either, but if you chop it really fine (a little smaller than the mini chocolate chips), you can't see it in the ice cream so you get these little surprise hits of chewy sweetness.
For me the white chocolate makes things sweeter than I usually like; but I shall try the smaller than mini - white chocolate chips. PS - I will give anything a try at least once....unless they are the grilled june bugs recipe I just saw out here...YIKES!
LOL! yup, I thought that was over the top, too. Try it with little dark chocolate chips--it will look like mint chip ice cream--or nuts--or it's really a smooth ice cream and is good plain, too.
wowzers! the white chocolate and salted peanuts are brilliant.
I can picture a cucumber sorbet...but cucumber ice cream? So interesting! This is going on the "must try" list for sure!
What an idea, and one I am going to play with! When I make Ice Cream I like Philadelphia Style = no eggs, not really a fan of white chocolate either...BUT, your ingredients minus that are similar to my vanilla ice cream recipe. I love the mint/cucumber idea, so I am going to have some fun with your recipe…thanks for sharing!
Kristen is the Senior Editor of food52.
Just tried this... Love it! I volunteer on an organic farm and I was trying to find something interesting to do with the cucumbers, so I thought icecream too! Found a different recipe first but it didn't work out so well. It was an uncooked version with just heavy cream and no eggs. It left a very fatty heavy film in your mouth. I found this recipe next and gave it a try- it's perfect! So light and refreshing! I also got some fresh mint from the farm as well, so it worked out perfectly! Thanks so much for posting this!