My Perfect Scoop of Pumpkin Pie Custard Ice Cream & Ginger Cookies

A few days ago, I taught myself how to make pumpkin puree, and it's safely stored in my freezer.  Since I had blogged about how I compared the taste of commercial canned pumpkin puree with homemade puree, I had to use up the large can of opened puree. (This is exactly why I froze one cup bags of puree, so that I wouldn't have this situation in the future.)  My throat was hurting, because a cold virus was attacking me, so I wanted ice cream. Yeah, yeah. Gargle with salt. No thanks. I'll go for something sweet and frozen.

So, I looked through my copy of "The Perfect Scoop"  for a pumpkin ice cream recipe. I didn't find one!  I decided to improvise, remembering how creamy and good that David Lebovitz's Strawberry Ice Cream turned out to be, when I made it last June.  I much prefer to make an egg custard based ice cream, now that I've learned that it's pretty easy to do. The egg yolks give such a silky and creamy texture to the ice cream. Never mind the calories and fat grams! Ice cream is just what is says-- I don't want ice milk!  To keep my caloric intake under control, I limit myself to one scoop a day. There. Did I redeem myself to the calorie police?

To begin with, you need to make the custard:

Combine cream, milk, brown sugar and granulated sugar in a medium-sized saucepan over medium heat. Cook, stirring, until the mixture is hot but not boiling, about six minutes (mine took about ten minutes).

Whisk eggs in a medium bowl. Gradually whisk 1 cup of the warm cream mixture into the bowl with the eggs (that would be "tempering").Pour the egg mixture back into the saucepan, reduce the heat to medium-low, and cook, stirring, until the mixture thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon, 5 to 10 minutes. (Mine took about 15 minutes to reach this stage.)  Do not boil.

Strain the custard into another bowl...

... and cover it partially with plastic wrap. Cool at least one hour at room temperature.

Combine pumpkin, vanilla, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves (or use 1 teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice, which I did) and salt in a medium bowl and blend well. NOTE: This is canned pumpkin puree. I have other plans for my homemade puree.

Add the pumpkin mixture to the cooled custard and whisk so that all the ingredients are evenly distributed. Refrigerate, covered completely, in the coldest part of your refrigerator until the mixture is very cold, about six hours. (Be patient, it's worth the wait.)

Stir the cold pumpkin mixture, then pour into the mixing bowl of an ice cream maker. Freeze according to ice cream maker manufacturer's directions.

There's a reason why the instructions say to "freeze according to the manufacturer's directions". I couldn't find the manual, and I think that the 5 cups of mixture was 1 cup too much. Ooops!

25 minutes later, look at that texture! My sore throat was ready for some pumpkin medicine! I could have eaten this as soft as it was, but...

I love this Tupperware ice cream container that I bought on eBay. I think it's circa 1980's, but it's still going strong. Put the pumpkin ice cream in a container with a tight cover. Freeze at least three hours before serving.

I don't know about you ice cream machine owners, but I love scraping out that extra-frozen bits of cream and sugar. Oh my!  This is outstanding!  It tastes just like pumpkin pie, with whipped cream... oh, my throat was so happy! I ate one scoop. I promise.

What do you think? Is this the perfect scoop?

Didn't I say that pumpkin has such a gorgeous color? Come a little closer, please...

Something's missing, though.  What pairs well with pumpkin?

Ginger! Gingersnap cookies! Homemade, thank you very much.

It's from Martha Stewart's Cookie Book.

I have future ideas for this ice cream-- maybe individual ramekins with a gingersnap crust and ice cream with fresh whipped cream? Or a pumpkin ice cream roll with this inside? Wouldn't that be an interesting twist on traditional pumpkin pie!  Well? What do you think?

I love the "Perfect Scoop" book. But you won't find this ice cream recipe in it. If I do say so myself, it's a winner. Next time-- I'd like to make a pumpkin cheese cake version of this ice cream. Oooh la la!  You can find the recipe at the bottom of this page. You can either print it via "Key Ingredient" or you can look for the PRINT/PDF  button at the bottom of the page. It's a cool new feature, that I hope you'll like. If you're reading this via Feedburner, you'll need to JUMP to my blog to view them. Go ahead! Try this recipe! I think you'll love it. I sure do.