Wasabi Ice Cream

Last week I made edamame ice cream. This week as a follow-up to that, I decided to make wasabi ice cream. I have only seen wasabi ice cream once before at one of my favorite ice cream shops, Sundaes and Cones. One day while showing my husband's cousin around New York City, we stumbled upon this shop. My husband's cousin was brave enough to order the wasabi ice cream. It was not bad, which has always made me curious about trying to duplicate the results. I did a quick search online, but could not find many recipes for wasabi ice cream. Instead, I turned to a trusted base I usually use when experimenting with new flavors I have never made before.

Wasabi Ice Cream

Ingredients:

2 cups heavy cream

1 cup milk

2 tablespoons wasabi paste

1 cup sugar

5 eggs yolks

 

Preparation:

Combine the first three ingredients in a pot and bring them to a slight boil over medium heat.

Cool and allow the wasabi to seep in the milk for two hours.

Whisk the egg yolks and sugar together.
Re-heat the cream mixture.

Slowly add the cream mixture a cup at a time to the egg mixture to temper the eggs. Whisk the cream and eggs together, in between transfers.

When you have transferred your last cup of cream into the egg mixture, whisk the two mixtures together for two minutes.

Transfer the mixture back to the pot and cook on medium heat for four minutes, stirring constantly.

Pour the mixture through a strainer into a clean bowl. Chill in your refrigerator for a minimum of three hours and up to one day. Churn in your ice cream maker.

 

 

Texture: This ice cream needs to churn for a long time (45 minutes - 1 hour) to become solid. I think some corn syrup or cream cheese added to the base would help it to become better stabilized.

 

Flavor: Wasabi ice cream is an interesting flavor to say the least. It has the hotness of wasabi and the sweetness of the ice cream, two flavors I am not used to experiencing at the same time. It is a light pastel color.

 

Overall: Wasabi ice cream is an interesting flavor to say the least. I kind of like this ice cream, though I don't know if I could eat it a whole bowl of it. It is best a spoonful at a time. It is also only for the most adventurous of eaters, who already enjoy wasabi. I enjoyed pairing it with some homemade chocolate truffles I recently made. I felt the hot wasabi and the cool chocolate complimented one another nicely. To sum up, if you're looking for a classical dessert or ice cream, this is definitely not it. If you're an adventurous eater, however, this may be your new favorite dessert.