Red Velvet Cake Ice Cream

Remember when I mentioned yesterday that you should save a few of those Red Velvet Cupcakes? Well, now you know why!

Yesterday, I told you about my husband’s love of red velvet cake.  Secretly, I’m convinced that he really just likes the cream cheese frosting. So, knowing what you do now, you can surely understand how excited he was to discover red velvet cake ice cream at a local ice cream shop last summer. He’s been talking about it ever since.

To him, it is the holy grail of ice cream, and he has been searching high and low for it every time we go out for ice cream.  Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to be a real popular flavor, and it’s only available at one local ice cream shop that we’ve found.  That would be all fine and well, except that we don’t really like said ice cream shop all that much. I won’t go into details, but I prefer to avoid it, if at all possible.

So, to avoid having to go out to the dreaded ice cream parlor every time my hubby wants some red velvet ice cream (at least once a week), I decided that I would take matters into my own hands… Or, perhaps I should say, into my own kitchen.

This ice cream is easy to make (especially if you have some leftover cupcakes on hand!)… It’s based on my standard custard recipe, and I have added cream cheese to give it that extra cream cheese frosting flavor.  The result is a rich and creamy ice cream with all of the flavor of red velvet cake.

My husband has reqeuested that this recipe go straight to the Husband’s Picks page… And, you can be sure that we won’t be visiting that ice cream parlor again any time soon!

Red Velvet Cake Ice Cream
(Makes about 1.5 quarts)

• 2 cups heavy cream
• 1 cup milk
• 4 egg yolks
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 8 ounce package of cream cheese, softened
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 4 red velvet cupcakes (with icing)

Combine the heavy cream and milk in a large sauce pan over medium heat. Bring to a simmer, but do not allow the mixture to boil.

Meanwhile, beat together the egg yolks and sugar until the mixture is light and lemony in color.  Add the cream cheese, and beat until the mixture is smooth. While mixing, gradually add in about 1 cup of the hot cream. This will temper the eggs so that they do not scramble.

Then, add the tempered egg and cream cheese mixture to the sauce pan, and continue to cook, stirring continuously, until the mixture thickens and coats the back of a wooden spoon. Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla extract.

Allow the ice cream base to cool slightly, then cover with plastic wrap (pressing the plastic wrap against the surface of the custard), and refrigerate until cold (at least 2 hours). Freeze in an ice cream maker, according to the manufacturer’s directions.

While the ice cream base is freezing, unwrap the cupcakes, and place them in a large mixing bowl.  Use a fork to smash the cupcakes and mix the crumbs with the icing. Once the ice cream base has frozen (it will be the consistency of soft serve ice cream), transfer it to the mixing bowl, and quickly fold the cupcake crumbs into the ice cream.  Transfer to an airtight container and freeze for a few hours to let it harden to hard serve consistency.

If the ice cream is too hard to scoop, allow it to sit at room temperature for about 10 minutes prior to serving.