Saffron Rose No Churn Ice Cream
I could never justify getting an ice cream maker because, well, ice cream isn't something I thought I would make often enough. Then I learned about no churn ice cream and tried it out using powdered sugar and heavy cream (often labeled "heavy whipping cream" in the US). The texture wasn't close enough to ice cream.
Enter sweetened condensed milk. That's the trick.
As well as the correct texture of the whipped cream. Do NOT over whip it. When ice cream melts, it's quite liquidy. Right? If you overwhip the cream into stiff whipped cream, it doesn't melt into liquid; rather, it becomes more of a wet mousse. Refer to the texture of the whipped cream at 01:43 and note how pour-able the mixture is at 02:00.
Ingredients
14oz can sweetened condensed milk
1 tbsp hot milk
1 tbsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp rose water
2 cups heavy whipping cream, chilled
For garnish: crushed pistachios, rose petals, and edible gold leaf
Recipe
Grind the saffron threads into a fine powder using a mortar with a pestle. Pour the hot milk into the bowl to let the saffron bloom for at least 20 minutes.
Pour the sweetened condensed milk in a bowl. Stir the vanilla, rose water, and saffron-milk into the sweetened condensed milk.
Using a stand mixer or hand mixer, beat the chilled heavy cream into soft peaks that hold their form but are not too thick nor stiff. Please reference the video (or the gif to the side) for the texture!
Now you can do one of two things—either FOLD a dollop of the whipped cream into the sweetened condensed milk and repeat until all of it is folded in; or pour the sweetened condensed milk mixture into the whipped cream, and fold until little to no streaks remain (depending on how you want the ice cream to look).
The key here is to fold the two components together so as to prevent deflation of the whipped cream. Ice cream is not quite frozen milk/cream, and it is not frozen thick-thick-whipped-cream. It’s a sweet in between spot.Once the mixture is homogeneous/fully incorporated, go ahead and pour it into a 9x5 loaf pan (mine is glass but metal works just fine). Try to pour it slowly and side to side to avoid creating air bubbles. You can use a spoon/spatula to smooth it out while or after pouring.
To create any ribbons of rose-syrup or other syrup throughout the ice cream, pour half the ice cream into the loaf pan, drizzle the syrup in squiggly lines, then pour the rest of the ice cream, and drizzle some more syrup. You can even take the back of a spoon to add some more swirls, but don’t over do it! When you scoop the frozen ice cream, it’ll randomize the swirls a bit.Garnish with any toppings and then seal the top of the pan with a snug/taut layer of plastic wrap. Sealing it well will ensure no ice crystals. We do NOT want ice crystals to form from additional moisture that leaked into the pan from the cover being loose.
Freeze for at least 8 hours to make sure the whole pan (top to bottom) is frozen through.
Before serving, you can pop the pan into the fridge for 5-10 minutes to allow the ice cream to soften up (for scooping) without melting.
