Milk Chocolate Black Pepper Ice Cream Food

SOUR CHERRY AND BLACK PEPPER ICE CREAM

Steps:

• In a small saucepan, bring rum and dried cherries to a simmer, cover and remove from heat. Let stand for 30 minutes.
• In a mixing bowl, whisk together egg yolks, sugar and creme fraiche.
• In a 2 quart saucepan, let simmer for 5 minutes the condensed milk, heavy cream, black pepper and vanilla. Strain and chill.
• Stir the cherries into the chilled custard, discarding the rum. Pour into an ice cream maker and process according to manufacturer's instructions.
• Pour the milk into a medium heavy saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook 45 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in the sugar and continue simmering 10 to 15 minutes or until reduced to 3 cups. Strain. Homemade condensed milk can be refrigerated up to a week.

BLACK PEPPER ICE CREAM

Steps:

• Warm the milk, sugar, peppercorns, salt and 1 cup of the half and half in a medium saucepan. (I heated it until it almost boiled.) Cover, remove from the heat, and let steep at room temperature for one hour.
• Rewarm the peppercorn-infused mixture. In a large bowl, whisk together the egg yolks. Slowly pour the warm mixture into the yolks, then pour it all back into the saucepan.
• Quickly rinse the bowl, pour the remaining half and half into it, and set a mesh strainer on top.
• Stir the custard constantly over medium heat with a heatproof spatula until it thickens. Pour the custard through the strainer, pressing the peppercorns gently to extract as much flavor as possible.
• Discard the peppercorns and stir the custard into the cream.
• Chill thoroughly (4-6 hours, or 2 hours over an ice bath).
• Freeze according to your ice cream maker's directions.

BLACK PEPPER ICE CREAM

Steps:

• In a medium-size saucepan, combine the cream, milk, sugar and pepper. Bring to a boil. Meanwhile, whisk the yolks in a a mixing bowl until light. Whisking constantly and rapidly, gradually pour the boiling cream mixture into the yolks.
• Place over a bowl of ice to cool. Cover and refrigerate until cold. Freeze in an ice cream machine according to manufacturer's instructions.