Serious Heat: We All Scream for Spicy Ice Cream
Cinnamon-Cayenne Ice Cream with Cider Doughnuts; photograph by Bill Milne
When the weather turns warm there's nothing like basking in the glow of cold, creamy ice cream. But have you let your taste buds explore the cool/fiery sensation of spicy ice cream? For example, there's a frozen concoction called Cold Sweat from Sunni Ski's Homemade Ice Cream in Angier, North Carolina. Listed as "dangerously hot," tasters and buyers must first sign a waiver before sampling this ice cream spiked with blazing hot sauce and chiles. Wow.
If you want to come up with your own, albeit milder, spicy ice cream, try steeping dried chiles into the milk or cream base. You can also add a strong dose of cinnamon to the custardy base and enhance with Red Hot candies after churning. Use chocolate that's already been spiced, candied or fresh ginger for zing, or a heavy dose of five-spice powder. As far as sorbet, nothing beats the refreshing mix of cucumber, lime, and chile. I also enthusiastically endorse a watermelon-jalapeño combo. As another option, eCreamery lets buyers create their own ice cream, with flavors like habanero (as well as a long list of non-spicy options) and creative add-ins.
Use our Cinnamon-Cayenne Ice Cream recipe in all its glory, or just as guidance to experiment with other spicy combinations. You can also buy your own zesty ice cream from our favorites below, after the jump.
Our Spicy Ice Cream Faves
Jeni's
Queen City Cayenne: milk chocolate "Cincinnati style" with cayenne and cinnamon
Thai Chili: toasted coconut, cayenne and coconut milk
Vosges Haut Chocolate
Naga Ice Cream: sweet Indian curry and fresh young coconut
Red Fire Ice Cream: Mexican ancho and chipotle chiles, plus cinnamon and dark chocolate ice cream
eCreamery
Mexican Chocolate: chocolate and spice and everything nice
Ciao Bella
Chocolate Jalapeño Gelato: tingling jalapeños and West African chocolate
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6 Comments:
I've made caramelized banana sorbet with red chilies that was really good.
simon at 5:48PM on 05/27/09
There's a gelato place in Vancouver called La Casa Gelato featuring 218 flavours of gelato, frozen yogurt & sorbetto at any time, with 500+ flavours in their history... Here's some flavours I found appealing!
Lemon Tarragon
Ginger Lychee
Red Currant Jalapeno
Red Bean
Curry
Pear & Gorgonzola
Basil Pernod
Apple Custard
Grand Marnier Chocolate
White Chocolate with Sun-dried Cranberry
Fig with Chocolate
Wasabi
Hot Chile
Jackfruit
Pineapple Coconut with Macadamias
Sugar at 9:54PM on 05/27/09
Shake Shack in NYC made a white pepper ice cream before that while being overall sweet had a nice spicy aftertaste kick to it.
chef17 at 10:30PM on 05/27/09
This is an awesome idea. We do prepare a milk based spicy beverage in India called Thandai full of ground peppercorns for the zing. How about just making an ice-cream out of it :-)
recipesbysam at 12:37AM on 05/28/09
I had a Tabasco and Apple Pie ice cream at BYU's Creamery a few years ago. It was good...but I couldn't finish it. hahaha
Teahlo at 10:48AM on 05/28/09
Jeni's Queen City Cayenne ice cream is positively amazing. I had a 5 day stay in Columbus, and probably went there six times. Every flavor I tried was incredible, but the Queen City Cayenne was an epiphany.
Since then, I have been obsessed with the combination of chocolate, cinnamon, and chili. I can't wait to make this ice cream!
eeels at 7:40PM on 05/28/09