Sweet Corn Ice Cream

[slbunge]

Went to the farmers' market today and the sweet corn seems to be hitting its stride. Have a hankering for sweet corn ice cream. I have looked at a few recipes but was hoping for some input (tips, recipes, sarcastic comments) from people who have actually made a batch.

[guajolote]

This the best thing ever. I'm going to buy some for my Mexican cooking class on Sunday.

Sorry, I don't have a recipe.

[vengroff]

Is this made with whole kernels, or just the milk from the corn?

[slbunge]

The recipes I have seen (a grand total of 2) call for cutting the whole kernels from the cob, cooking them in with the milk (or custard), and then straining.

Of course I have this vague memory of reading about peircing the kernels with a knife while they are still on the cob and then scraping to get the milk. Perhaps it was a dream.

[bilrus]

Oh my god does that sounds good.

I've never heard of it before but am ready to break out the ice cream maker this weekend after a trip to the farm.

[wesza]

I've made "Sweet Corn" Ice Cream, using "Olathe Sweet Bi-Color Corn" that should come on the market soon, if not already. To get a essence of the Corn, we cut the Nibs from the Cobs. Then we boiled the cobs in small amount of water to utilize the sweet flavor. Used this fluid to simmer together with the Nibs, then riced the nibs with the fluid essence. Stripped a Vanilla Bean, together with Fluid Essence and 4 oz. Sweetened Condensed Milk. Took Nibs from Several Cobs off Cob, Sauted in Sweet Butter just long enough to Cook until juices flowed. Mixed togther with, cooled down Essence, Milk and Vanilla. Removed Vanilla Bean then added to Standard Ice Cream Formula, adjusting sweetness to taste. It comes out interesting, nicly served as a intermezzo at a dinner, or fun as a dessert.

[chefette]

At the FL they make a really tasty sweet corn ice cream. It turns out that they take the denuded cobs and soak them overnight in the cream to infuse the flavor.

[sandra]

I never made it, but used to eat loads of it as kid in Mexico... La Danesa, the ice cream chain, used to have the best.. ummmmm helado de elote.....

[slbunge]

helado de elote....

It never occured to me to look up a spanish version of the recipe.

HELADO DE ELOTE

3 Elotes

1 Lt. Leche de vaca

3 Huevos de gallina

1 Onz. Maicena

2 Onz. Azúcar

1/2 Onz. Canela en rajas

2 Cucharadas Vainilla

Cocer la leche a la que se ha adicionado canela en rajas, mantenerla en el fuego durante dos hervores. Cocer los elotes en agua, una vez cocidos, raspar el grano del elote, moler en grano no muy fino. Batir las claras y yemas de huevos a punto de turrón, mezclar la leche cocida con el grano molido, maicena, vainilla y azúcar; agregar los huevos batidos agitando constantemente hasta homogenizar todos los ingredientes. Hervir la mezcla, batiéndola constantemente para evitar se pegue a las paredes del recipiente, enfriar y vaciar en una taza sopera, poner a congelar. Da para seis raciones.

Note: If any of you friendly Spanish speakers can help with a translation, please step forward. I get the jist of the recipe based on my broken understanding of Spanish (my three years of high-school Spanish taken long ago is all but gone) but I am not familiar with some of the words.

[sandra]

Sure, here you go:

3 corns

1 liter milk (cow)

3 eggs (chicken)

1 ounce cornflour

2 ounces sugar

1/2 ounce cinnamon sticks

2 tabs vanilla

Heat the milk and cinnamon to boiling twice (?) on low heat.

Cook the corns in water and scrape off the kernels. Grind the kernels, but not too finely.

Whisk the eggs until ribbons form

Mix the milk with the kernels, cornflour, vanilla and sugar

Add the eggs mixing well until completely incoporated.

Bring the mix to a boil, stirring constantly, cool and place in freezer.

Serves 6

This is their instructions as written, they don't mention and ice cream machine, but it seems logical, no?

Let me know how it turns out, I will try and dig up a recipe also

[jsolomon]

For milking the corn, a good method is to cut through the center of the kernels in parallel with the rows (lengthwise along the cob) all along the ear and then scrape the ear with the spine of your knife.

Alternately, you can cut the tops off and then scrap along the spine. Both methods work pretty well.

I've never heard of sweet corn ice cream. My personal suggestion would be to have the corn naked with butter and make vanilla, but consider that my ignorance showing.

[joiei]

When I used to make Sweet Corn Ice Cream, I would scrap the kernals then steep the cobs in my cream and let sit overnite before continuing with the custard. I served a scoop with Chocolate tamales and a rice fritter that was dusted with cinnamon sugar.

[Gifted Gourmet]

Since we have thoroughly enjoyed the thread here this week on how one goes about eating corn on the cob, what better time than to ask a related question: have you ever made or eaten sweet corn ice cream?

In Claudia Fleming's outstanding book, The Last Course: The Desserts of Gramercy Tavern , she includes a recipe for a sweet-corn ice cream. the recipe

creamy-textured and luscious, with a subtle corn taste. Since the flavor of the ice cream is wholly dependent on the sweetness of the corn

This special dessert has made it big at Dorsay, Masa, and even Nobu in NYC ... and the recipe that I found and want to try is here

Anyone know about, or enjoy, this specialty?

[Knicke]

No, but it sounds like it could be amazing!!!!!

Though I highly doubt I would be able to sacrifice especially delicious ears to such a concoction...they'd get boiled up and chomped too quickly!

[bloviatrix]

I've collected recipes for sweet corn ice cream since I bought my ice cream maker, but never got around to actually trying one. But I've got most of a quart of heavy cream sitting in the fridge (leftover from the cinnamon ice cream I made yesterday) so maybe this is the excuse I need.

[Suzanne F]

I had some many years ago at Mesa Grill -- when Wayne Harley Brachman was the pastry chef there (there's a recipe for it in his book Cakes and Cowpokes). Except for the tendency of the corn kernels to stick to my teeth -- which happens to all forms of fresh corn -- it was one of the best things I'd ever tasted. And yes, it really does need great corn.

The second recipe GG linked to is one that really piques my curiosity: the honey, chile, and lemon zest should make it even more special than any other version.

[bleachboy]

We do have a abundance of great corn in Tennessee right now. If I get a chance, I'll make some this weekend. I love corn, I love cream, I love eggs... what's not to love?!

[Gifted Gourmet]

Except for the tendency of the corn kernels to stick to my teeth -- which happens to all forms of fresh corn -- it was one of the best things I'd ever tasted.

But with the caveat to "strain, strain, strain!" .... not about constipation but the kernels here!

[therdogg]

I saw a recipe somewhere (I can't for the life of me remember where) that involved a cornmeal crepe filled with sweet corn ice cream and warm blackberry sauce, and topped with some fresh blackberries. I thought that sounded incredible- I'll also bet that sweet corn ice cream would taste great in a sundae with warm maple syrup and unsweetened whipped cream.

So very midwestern.

[docsconz]

I am thinking about maaking an ice cream for a savory course with sweet corn, lobster, saffron and vanilla. Has anyone here ever tried making something like this? Any recommendations?

[Gifted Gourmet]

Varmint had some lobster ice cream on his recent trip to Maine and was less than impressed ...

[KatieM]

I've eaten plenty of sweet corn ice cream in my day, but of course, I'm from East Central Illinois originally. I've haven't made any, because I haven't been living in Illinois the last few years, and I refuse to make it without good Illini Supersweet from my family's garden. Actually, because of my upbringing, I'm a huge corn snob, and I have yet to encounter decent corn outside of Illinois.

Corn ice cream isn't really that unusual when you think about it. Ever have creamed corn? Corn pudding? Cream, eggs and corn are a natural combination, and if I can ever find good corn, I like to make a corn pie/custard for breakfast with a liberal amount of black pepper. Kind of sweet and savory at the same time.

Interesting corn facts regarding why East Central Illinois produces the best corn in the entire world:

Champaign, IL is home to the University of Illinois, which has (obviously) an school of agriculture. This school spends lots of time working on new corn hybrids. Some hybrids for feed corn, some for sweet corn. The University's library was built underground so as not to cast a shadow on the test field!

The soil in that part of the state has been tested and deemed to be some of the richest and most excellent soil in the world. Some believe that it is chemically identical to the soil in the Garden of Eden. Well, at least where historians believe the Garden of Eden was located, in a patch between the Tigres and Euphrates (not sure of spelling here) rivers.

If you do make this ice cream, or anything else involving sweet corn, try to find corn that was picked very very recently. It tends to turn to starch just hours off the stalk. If you can't use it right away, slice the kernels off the cob, collecting any milk that comes out, and freeze.

Katie

[Gifted Gourmet]

Champaign, IL is home to the University of Illinois, which has (obviously) an school of agriculture. This school spends lots of time working on new corn hybrids. Some hybrids for feed corn, some for sweet corn. The University's library was built underground so as not to cast a shadow on the test field!

And, as luck would have it, I graduated from the University of Illinois back in the seventies! and remember how their school of agriculture and school of animal husbandry won numerous awards for excellence!

[bloviatrix]

I made the Sweet Corn Ice Cream that GG links to in the very first post. It's very intense. Actually, it tastes like you're eating butter. As such, the flavor is kind of uni-dimensional. It's not really something you can eat solo. It needs a side. Thus far, I've tried it with blueberry pie, which was a good combination. But Blovie had the brilliant idea of eating it with something salty/crunchy. So, he crushed up some pretzels into small pieces and sprinkled them on top of the ice cream. And it worked. The buttery, sweet ice cream with the crunchy-salt combination good.

That said, I think if I were to attempt this again I would try a recipe that had some other flavors in it.

I should point out that the ice cream has a great texture. I was little concerned that the 9 yolks would be too much, but it had a fabulous mouth feel and no graininess.

[Gifted Gourmet]

My kind of dessert, corn ice cream is my kind of dessert .... thanks to Sinatra but special thanks to you for sharing the results of this concoction, bloviatrix, and blovie's "remedy" to the texture issues...

Actually, it tastes like you're eating butter

So, leibchen, what could be bad?? like Linda Richman on SNL said "her voice is just like buttah!" ... and Julia knew everything butter-ish was a great thing indeed!