Recipe: No Churn Coffee Stracciatella Ice Cream
Coffee and chocolate are two luxury commodities people often cite as not being able to live without. They also represent two of the most lucrative, environmentally and socially impactful industries after crude oil, which means how we source and consume coffee and chocolate can make a huge difference to the planet and the people involved in growing.
At Social Pantry, we are proud to source our coffee from Redemption Roasters – the UK’s first prison based roastery – and our chocolate from Pump Street Chocolate – a bean to bar chocolate company in Orford, Suffolk making small-batch, single-estate chocolate. Earlier this year we also spoke with climate-positive coffee roasters Two Chimps Coffee to bring you a blog on how to make each cup count.
This month, we are bringing you a recipe for rich and decadent no-churn coffee Stracciatella ice cream in collaboration with Two Chimps Coffee, in which we fold shards of Pump Street Chocolate dark chocolate are folded through an easy coffee infused custard to create a simple, delicious and sustainable frozen treat!
You will need:
- Electric whisk
- Mixing bowl
- Sealable container
- Container or loaf tin
- Recyclable cling film
Ingredients:
- 600ml double cream
- 40g coarsely ground coffee (cafetiere grind is great)
- Pinch salt
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 100g Pump Street Chocolate dark chocolate, finely chopped or grated on the widest setting
- 397g can sweetened condensed milk
Method:
- Start by infusing the cream with the coffee by adding the double cream and ground coffee to a sealable container. Mix well, seal, and leave in the fridge overnight.
- Use a muslin cloth or very fine sieve to strain the infused cream into a large bowl, reserving the coffee grounds as these can be repurposed! You will need 450ml of infused cream in total.
- Add the vanilla extract and salt to the cream.
- Whisk the cream using an electric whisk until it forms soft peaks. Gradually fold small amounts of the condensed milk into the cream to loosen, then continue to gently fold the remainder of the cream and chocolate shards into the mixture, reserving a small amount for sprinkling on top.
- Carefully pour the mixture into a container or loaf cake tin and sprinkle over the remaining chocolate shards and some flakey salt.
- Take some recyclable cling film and lightly press it onto the top of your ice cream to prevent ice crystals from forming. Leave in the freezer overnight.
- Remove from the freezer 15 minutes before serving to all the ice cream to soften. Run an ice cream scoop or large spoon under warm water to help form perfect balls of ice cream.
Zero-waste ice cream toppings
This ice cream is delicious as it is, with a decadent creamy texture, slight crunch from the chocolate shards and full-bodied flavour. However feel free to get creative and add toppings! Here are some of our favourite zero-waste toppings for a truly sustainable ice cream sundae!
- Biscuit crumbs – Rescue those broken biscuits from the bottom of the tin and crumble over ice cream for a crunchy, malty topping, or pile into the bottom of your bowl for a cheesecake style base. A spoonful of biscuit crumbs also works well to prevent a scoop of ice cream from sliding about on a plated dessert.
- Granola grains – Eaten all the clusters of your favourite granola so that all that remains is fine, powdery crumbs? These finely crushed sweet and toasty grains are perfect sprinkled over ice cream – for breakfast or dessert!
- Cake scraps – Next time you have leftover cake or trimmings offcuts from carving a cake, cut these into bite-sized chunks or crumbs, place into a freezer bag and freeze for up to six months. Sprinkle over ice cream or fold into the mixture to replace chocolate shards. Brownies and cookies also work well!
- Pretzels or plain, salted, or honey-roasted nuts – Rather than letting these go stale in the back of the cupboard, sprinkle over ice cream for crunchy, salty-savoury contrast!
Zero-waste ideas for your coffee grounds
- Super charge your compost – coffee grounds are rich in nitrogen, so they make excellent green matter. Simply add the coffee grounds, along with the filter, directly to your compost pile.
- Get growing! – Mixing dried coffee grounds with carrot or radish seeds can increase their yield, resulting in a plentiful harvest a few week’s down the line!
- Invite worms – Bury coffee grounds deeper into the soil to attract worms. Worms play an important part in soil construction and recycling of organic waste – they’re nature’s little helpers!
- Deodorise your hands – Rubbing coffee grounds onto your hands after handling onions and garlic can help eliminate those hard-to-shift odours!