Endless Ice Cream: Pumpkin Chai

I couldn’t close out this ice cream series with including one of my favorites, pumpkin.

Pumpkins start showing up at the farm stands by me around the first week of September, and I cannot resist the urge to pick up a few pie pumpkins and roast them. If you’re down for roasting your own pumpkins and making puree, here is an easy tutorial. Make sure you puree it until very smooth; the ice cream is unforgiving to stringy pumpkin puree. Otherwise, canned pumpkin works perfectly. Scoop yourself a big waffle cone of this and pop in The Nightmare Before Christmas for a perfect (in my opinion) end to the day.

Pumpkin Chai Ice Cream

makes about 1.5 quarts

Ingredients

• 2 Tbs/12g whole spices (I used 1/2 tsp cloves, 1/2 tsp dried orange peel, 1/2 tsp black peppercorns, 1/4 tsp allspice, 1tsp cinnamon chunks, 5 green cardamom pods, 3 one inch pieces dried ginger, and 1 star anise)
• 1/3 cup loose black tea
• 1 cup whole milk
• 2 cups heavy cream
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 4 egg yolks
• 1 cup (about 1/2 a can) pumpkin puree

Method

1. In a 4-quart saucepan over medium-high heat, combine the spices, tea, milk, cream, sugar and salt. Stir until the sugar dissolves and the mixture starts to steam. Cover, remove from heat and let steep 20 minutes.
2. Strain the mixture through a fine mesh sieve and press down on the tea and spices to extract as much liquid as possible. Discard the loose tea and spices.
3. Return the mixture to steaming over medium-high heat. Slowly drizzle it into the egg yolks, whisking constantly, until combined. Return to the saucepan and cook over medium-high, stirring constantly, until slightly thickened. Strain through a mesh sieve into a bowl.
4. Place the pumpkin puree into a medium bowl. Add the chai milk, 1/2 cup at a time, and whisk until smooth. Cool over an ice bath. Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, up to 3 days, until well chilled. Churn according to your ice cream maker’s instructions.