Earl Grey Ice Cream

Summer. The garden produces. The book is in production. The visits continue. The editing is done. The manuscript is final. The book is being designed — a cover, which Rachel is negotiating, and which I have opinions about, because I have opinions about everything, and the cover of a book called "The Chain Doesn't Break" should look like: a kitchen. A table. A challah. Hands braiding. The image should be warm. The image should be Sylvia's kitchen, or mine, or both, or the idea of both. The cover should say: come in. Sit down. Eat. The cover should be an invitation. The book is an invitation. The chain is an invitation.

I made a cold soup for the week — a vichyssoise, the leek-and-potato soup served cold, elegant and simple and French, which Sylvia would not have recognized but which Miriam, who spent a year in Paris before moving to Israel, taught me in 1999, and which I make every summer because it is delicious and because the making of it reminds me of Miriam standing in my kitchen twenty-five years ago, stirring leeks and telling me about the Marais and the kosher bakeries and the French Jewish women who make the same soup I make, in different languages, on different continents, with the same leeks and the same potatoes and the same love. The chain is international. The soup proves it.

After the vichyssoise was made and cooling in the refrigerator — after I had stood at the stove thinking of Miriam and the Marais and the kosher bakeries of Paris — I wanted something else cold, something that also carried a sense of the world in it. Earl Grey felt right: a tea with a history of its own, traveled and refined, the kind of thing Miriam might have sipped in a Paris café before coming home to teach me about leeks. This ice cream is not Sylvia’s, and it is not strictly mine, but that is the point — the chain is international, and so is the dessert.

Prep Time: 20 minutes | Cook Time: 15 minutes | Total Time: 4 hours 35 minutes (includes chilling & churning) | Servings: 8

Ingredients

2 cups heavy cream
1 cup whole milk
3/4 cup granulated sugar
4 Earl Grey tea bags (or 2 tablespoons loose-leaf Earl Grey)
5 large egg yolks
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Instructions

Steep the tea. Combine the heavy cream and milk in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Warm until just simmering, then remove from heat. Add the tea bags, cover, and steep for 8–10 minutes. Remove the tea bags, pressing gently to extract flavor. Discard.
Make the custard base. Return the saucepan to medium-low heat and whisk in the sugar until dissolved. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg yolks until pale and slightly thickened.
Temper the eggs. Slowly ladle about 1/2 cup of the warm cream mixture into the egg yolks while whisking constantly. Pour the tempered yolks back into the saucepan and stir continuously over medium-low heat until the custard thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon, about 5–7 minutes. Do not boil.
Finish and chill. Remove from heat. Stir in the salt and vanilla extract. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve into a clean bowl. Press plastic wrap directly onto the surface and refrigerate until thoroughly cold, at least 4 hours or overnight.
Churn. Pour the chilled custard into your ice cream maker and churn according to manufacturer’s instructions, usually 20–25 minutes, until it reaches a soft-serve consistency.
Freeze to set. Transfer to an airtight container and freeze for at least 2 hours before serving. Let sit at room temperature for 5 minutes before scooping.

Nutrition (per serving)

Earl Grey Ice Cream — A Cold Dessert for a Summer of Chains and Connections