Chai Ice Cream

If it seems a little silly to roll dice to choose ingredients for a recipe ... well, it is. In a very fun way. I've been having a blast with the chai, recipe, and cocktail dice from Leafcutter Designs. It's fun to let the dice choose ingredients for me.

Since I'm not an expert in chai, I really haven't experimented with different flavors, so I liked the idea that I could just roll the dice and just go with whatever appeared.

Since I got the chai dice, I've rolled quite a few drinks, but this time around, I decided to give the recipe a bit of a twist and make ice cream. I used the ingredients the dice suggested, and I added a few more, and I think I rolled a winner.

Chai Ice Cream
By Donna Currie, Cookistry

2 cups heavy cream
1 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk
1 star anise
2 green cardamom pods
2 teaspoons dried lemongrass
2 black tea teabags* (I used a decaf breakfast tea, but use what you like best)
5 allspice berries
5 black peppercorns
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 Tablespoon vanilla extract

Combine the cream, sweetened condensed milk, star anise, cardamom pods, lemongrass, tea bags (tear off the little paper tag - you don't want bits of that in your ice cream. Ick.), allspice berries, peppercorns, and salt in a heavy bottomed saucepan. Bring to a simmer.

Let it simmer gently for just a minute or so. Give it a little stir to make sure all the spices aren't just lazily floating on top.

Turn the heat off, add the vanilla, and transfer all of it to a storage container. Let it come to room temperature (or close enough), then refrigerate until fully chilled.

Strain the mixture through a fine-mesh strainer to remove all the spices and tea and whatnot, and discard the spices and tea and whatnot.

Churn the cream mixture in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's instruction. Transfer to a storage container and freeze until firm.

*You don't actually need tea BAGS. If you buy loose tea, use that as-is. No need to put in in a tea strainer or other device - it will get strained out along with all of the other spices.