Cafe Fernando's Pistachio Ice Cream

Pistachio, in other words the green gem, is my favourite ingredient to work with and simply to eat. It is perfect with both savoury dishes and delicate desserts or as a salted snack on the go. 

Here in Turkey, pistachio is often used as a base for desserts, from baklavas to Turkish delights you can find it anywhere. Probably because we have the one of the best pistachios in the world, we try to use it everywhere; on top of a rice pudding, rolled in phyllo pastry, etc. It is dense, rich and has a sweet kick. As Nick Malgieri, a cookbook author, said "Turkish pistachios have a brilliant color that is entirely natural. The baklava is so bright and unusual people think, 'Eww, that has food colouring in it', but it doesn't"

Whenever I go to a bakery, I order pistachio macarons and a scoop of pistachio ice cream. Because nothing goes better with pistachio than pistachio itself. And I wanted to share an ice cream recipe before the winter cold starts to hit us in the face. Plus, I wanted to give my new Kitchen Aid Ice Cream Maker Attachment a try. 

The Ice Cream maker is easy to use, if you learn how to use it. At first, I had a very hard time attaching it because I thought that I had to unscrew something in order to put the drive assembly in. But in fact I only had to slide it. Then I poured the mixture in to the freeze bowl before starting the mixer up. Then, the ice cream froze in the bottom and sides, the dasher did not move and I almost broke it. After scraping the sides and the bottom, cleaning the mixer, and refreezing I started the mixer and then poured the mixture in while it was working. Again my Turkish habit of not reading the manual did me no good. So, if I were you, I would read the manual before hand. 

Also, I do not have a food processor so I used ground pistachios, a spatula and a mixing bowl. It was very hard to achieve the desired consistency because the syrup crystallised very quickly. But somehow I managed to prepare a beautiful ice cream. What I try to mean is that, if you have food processor, you are lucky. If you don't, get ready to work those arms like a turbo mixer and your cardio workout for the day would be done. 

This is a Pistachio Ice Cream Recipe from my favourite cookbook Cafe Fernando. Yes it does take a lot of patience to prepare the ice cream, but I assure you will be amazed with the result. Also, the measurements I provided below are in grams and 480 g of milk is not equal to 480 ml. So you have to be careful and use your scale to its full potential. I hope you'll like this recipe,



Ingredients:
1 1/3 cup (180 g) + 1/3 cup (45 g) pistachios, without the skin and unsalted
1/2 cup (100 g) + 1/4 (50 g) granulated white sugar
3 tablespoons (45 g) water, room temperature
1/4 teaspoon (2 g) salt
1/2 cup (120 g) heavy cream (sütaş krema)
2 cups (480 g) whole milk
3 large egg yolks

Directions:
1) If you prefer an ice cream with roasted pistachios, cook 1 1/3 cup of pistachios spread evenly on a tray in a preheated (180 degrees C) oven, until they are more yellow in color and your kitchen smells like pistachio heaven, for about 8-10 minutes. Remove the tray from the oven, transfer the pistachios in a bowl and wait until they are at room temperature. If you prefer not to roast them, you can skip this and start with step 2. I did not roast mine, this is why my ice cream had a brighter green color. 

2) Pour the 1/2 cup sugar into a small saucepan and shake the pan until the bottom is evenly covered with sugar. Pour in the water from the sides of the saucepan and heat this mixture for about 10 minutes until a digital thermometer inserted reads 115 degrees C. Make sure not to stir the sugar mixture. 

3) While the syrup is cooking, blend the 1 1/3 cup pistachios in a food processor with salt until the pistachios release their natural oil and they start to look like a paste, for about 5 minutes without intervals. 

4) Keep the cream close to the pistachios because we will use them immediately. In step 5, you have to be quick because the sugar will crystallise very quickly if you do not act fast. 

5) When the syrup reaches 115 degrees C, take it off from the heat and pour it over the pistachio paste as you blend the pistachios in the food processor. When you add the entire syrup, quickly pour in the cream and blend the mixture for 2 minutes without intervals. When you have your pistachio cream ready, set it aside. 

6) Heat the milk in a medium saucepan. 

7) In the meanwhile, whisk your egg yolks with 1/4 cup of sugar in a medium mixing bowl with a balloon whisk for about 2-3 minutes until you have a lighter coloured egg mixture. 

8) When you see steam coming of from the milk, take it off the heat. By using a scoop, slowly pour in the milk over the egg mixture as you continue to whisk with your other hand. This is called tempering. Continue until your egg mixture is warmer and pour it back into the saucepan. Reheat the mixture until it reaches 80 degrees C, for about 5 minutes and continue to stir it using a spatula so that the mixture does not stick to the bottom of the pan and burn.

9)Take the milk mixture off heat and whisk in the pistachio cream you prepared. Pour the mixture into a mixing bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let it rest in the refrigerator for at least 8 hours or overnight. 

10) After setting your mixer and ice cream maker properly, take the ice cream mix out from the fridge and give it a quick whisk. Turn the mixer to stir 1 and pour in the ice cream mixture. Let the machine do its work for 15-20 minutes. Then, transfer the mixture to an air tight container and cover it with plastic wrap so that the mixture does not crystallise. Freeze it for 2 more hours. 

11) Scoop your ice cream into a bowl and sprinkle with more pistachios on top. If your ice cream is very hard for scooping, cover its lid and let it rest on your kitchen counter for 10-15 minutes. Or take a mug full of boiled water and place your ice cream scooper in for 2 minutes and try again. You can store your ice cream for 1 week in the freezer. 

Enjoy. 

Recipe from Cenk Sönmezsoy's Cafe Fernando Cookbook by Okuyanus Publishing.