Pine Nut Ice Cream Recipe (2024)

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5 from 4 votes

By Hank Shaw

December 31, 2011 | Updated June 23, 2020

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Pine Nut Ice Cream Recipe (2)

As I headed out on my cross-country tour for my first book, I made a pact with myself to stop at as many non-corporate diners, truck stops and restaurants as I could. That’s how I found myself at a non-descript truck stop somewhere in the Sonoran Desert on the east side of Arizona.

No one else was inside, save for a bored clerk watching daytime television with one eye, and me with the other. I expected to find a few local specialties, and maybe even some of the pinon pine nuts so famous in the region. I was not disappointed: I found locally made jerky and sausages, lots of dried fruits, and some honey.

But no pine nuts; too early in the season, the clerk told me. I stocked up for the road, and lemme tell ya those fresh dates and antelope jerky hit the spot all the way to Austin.

I also bought a quart of dark desert wildflower honey. To idea of saving the ephemeral treasure of a desert in bloom seemed magical, and the aroma of the honey hit me like a silken fist. From time to time on my journey I would just open the jar and inhale.

I never did find any roadside pine nuts on my trip. But I do know where to harvestreal, American pine nuts — on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada. Pinus monophyllaare large, and they crack easily.

American pine nuts are vastly superior to any other variety, with the possible exception of Italian stone pine nuts. Neither variety will give you that horrible “pine mouth,” which you get when some unscrupulous Chinese manufacturer taints Korean pine nuts with some other Asiatic pine nut that causes pine mouth. Pine mouth, incidentally, will make everything taste metallic for days.

Pine Nut Ice Cream Recipe (3)

Somewhere along my endless book tour the kernel of an idea lodged in my mind: Pine nut ice cream, sweetened with this desert honey.

My first crack at this ice cream failed, I should tell you. For whatever reason I only added about 1/3 of a cup of honey and only 2 egg yolks. The ice cream turned out icy. So I let it melt, heated it up again and added more honey and egg yolks, then rechurned it. Yes folks, if you did not know you can rechurn ice cream, now you know. Thought I might pass that bit of knowledge on.

We ate the ice cream for Christmas dinner, and it was smooth, very rich and pleasantly sweet without being cloying. The pine nuts, which can be a little soft at room temperature, harden up in the ice cream and provide a nice crunch. I used the last of my desert honey to make this ice cream, and now it’s gone. I’ll hold the memory of it inside until I hit the road again.

And given the life I live, that won’t be long.

If you’re looking for something to serve with this, you could do worse than olive oil rosemary cake.

(If you happen to live in California’s Central Valley, you can also use the nuts from the local gray or bull pines. Here’s how to harvest bull pine nuts.)

5 from 4 votes

Pine Nut Ice Cream

Pine nuts and honey are a great combination, and you don't need to get an esoteric honey for this recipe. And while I use American pine nuts, you can use any pine nuts -- just beware that 95 percent of all store-bought nuts are from China, and they can potentially contain "bad" nuts that cause pine mouth. I will still use the Chinese nuts from time to time, but for me it's worth cracking my own American nuts. Italian stone pine nuts are an excellent, if expensive, alternative.

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Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Servings: 10 servings

Author: Hank Shaw

Prep Time: 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 30 minutes minutes

Total Time: 45 minutes minutes

Ingredients

  • 1 cup shelled, skinned pine nuts
  • 2 cups whole milk
  • 2 cups heavy cream
  • 3/4 cup honey
  • 1/2 vanilla bean, scraped
  • A pinch of salt
  • 4 or 5 egg yolks

Instructions

  • Toast the pine nuts in a dry pan on medium-high heat until they begin to brown. Keep an eye on them, as pine nuts can burn very easily. As soon as they start to brown nicely, move the nuts to a bowl and set aside.

  • Put the pine nuts and the remaining ingredients (except the egg yolks) into a heavy pot and heat to steaming over medium heat. If you have a thermometer, you want the cream to get to 160°F or so. Turn off the heat, cover and let steep for 1 hour. Refrigerate until cold, up to a day.

  • Strain the mixture and discard the vanilla bean. Save the pine nuts and reserve.

  • Reheat the cream mixture over medium heat to 160°F. Beat the egg yolks slightly in a bowl. Now, using two hands -- one with a small ladle, the other with a whisk -- slowly pour in some of the hot cream into the egg yolks, using your whisk hand to whisk in the hot cream. Do this a little at a time so you don't scramble your eggs. After you have 2-3 ladlefulls in the egg yolk bowl, start whisking the hot cream mixture in the pot. Slowly pour in the hot egg yolk-cream mix and whisk well. Allow this to cook below a simmer, stirring often, for 5 minutes. It will thicken.

  • Strain the mixture once again and chill. Once chilled, pour it into your ice cream maker. Allow the ice cream to churn until it's a soft-serve consistency. Move the ice cream to a large, chilled bowl and fold in the pine nuts. Chill hard, then serve with some honey drizzled over the top.

Notes

Note that prep time does not include the chill time for the custard.

Nutrition

Calories: 386kcal | Carbohydrates: 27g | Protein: 6g | Fat: 30g | Saturated Fat: 13g | Cholesterol: 148mg | Sodium: 44mg | Potassium: 202mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 24g | Vitamin A: 883IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 99mg | Iron: 1mg

Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.

Tried this recipe? Tag me today!Mention @huntgathercook or tag #hankshaw!

Categorized as:
Foraging, Recipe, Sweet Things

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About Hank Shaw

Hey there. Welcome to Hunter Angler Gardener Cook, the internet’s largest source of recipes and know-how for wild foods. I am a chef, author, and yes, hunter, angler, gardener, forager and cook. Follow me on Instagram and on Facebook.

Read More About Me

Pine Nut Ice Cream Recipe (2024)

FAQs

How to make ice cream 4 steps? ›

How to Make Homemade Ice Cream
  1. Cook the milk, cream, and sugar until the sugar has dissolved.
  2. Transfer the mixture to a measuring cup, then add the vanilla extract. ...
  3. Pour the mix into an ice cream maker and churn according to the manufacturer's directions.
  4. Serve immediately or ripen in the freezer before serving.
Jun 22, 2023

How to make ice cream in 10 minutes? ›

Step 1In a small resealable plastic bag, combine half-and-half, sugar, and vanilla. Push out excess air and seal. Step 2Into a large resealable plastic bag, combine ice and salt. Place small bag inside the bigger bag and shake vigorously, 7 to 10 minutes, until ice cream has hardened.

What is the ratio of milk to cream for ice cream? ›

Ice cream made just from milk tends to be kind of icy. I like a ratio of 2:1 cream:milk. You can usually get away with 2 cups of cream to 1 cup of milk without overflowing your ice cream machine.

What are the ingredients of ice cream? ›

Ice cream is a frozen dessert typically made from milk or cream that has been flavoured with a sweetener, either sugar or an alternative, and a spice, such as cocoa or vanilla, or with fruit, such as strawberries or peaches. Food colouring is sometimes added in addition to stabilizers.

How to make ice cream at home 5 minutes? ›

Warning: Donʼt touch rock salt with your bare hands!
  1. Prepare. Pour the cream, sugar and vanilla into the small bag and zip it up tightly. Fill the large bag with ice. and pour in the salt. ...
  2. Shake. Shake the large bag for 5 minutes. It will be cold, so wrap a towel around it or wear some oven mitts!
  3. Enjoy!

How to make ice cream by step by step? ›

In a small plastic bag, add ½ cup heavy cream, ½ cup milk, 2 tablespoons fine sugar and ½ teaspoon vanilla extract. In another larger bag, add 2 to 3 cups ice and ¼ cup salt, then place the smaller bag inside and seal it. Shake the big bag for about 6 to 8 minutes, and presto! Instant ice cream.

How to make a simple ice cream? ›

Combine the cream, milk, sugar, vanilla, and salt in a medium saucepan over medium-low heat. Warm for 5 minutes, whisking often, until the sugar is fully dissolved and the mixture is warmed through. Then, chill the ice cream base. Transfer it to a heatproof bowl, cover, and chill for 2 hours or overnight.

What is the secret to making ice cream? ›

When it comes to great ice cream, cold temperatures and speed are your friends: the faster you bring your base from liquid to solid, the creamier it'll be. In a 2-quart unit, a typical batch of ice cream will take between 18 and 25 minutes to churn.

Which milk is best for making ice cream? ›

Don't worry too much if you don't have whole milk or heavy cream. Nearly any milk will work, and you can substitute half-and-half for the cream. Ideally you want ingredients with a high fat content because these will create a creamy texture when cooled.

What sugar is best for ice cream? ›

Most home ice cream recipes call for simple table sugar, which is chemically known as sucrose. But in pro kitchens you have more options. Liquid sugars like invert sugar, corn syrup, honey, and glucose syrup all add body, creaminess, and stability to ice cream, and a little goes a long way.

Which milk is better for making ice cream? ›

But the likely answer—according to this test at least—is that premium milk is better for ice cream not because it's fresher, but because it's fattier. If you're wondering, this doesn't mean that more fat = better all of the time. Too much fat can dull an ice cream's flavor and leave a waxy feeling on the tongue.

What are the 3 most important ingredients of ice cream? ›

If you have ever made ice cream, you already know what goes into it, ingredients such as milk, cream, and sugar. But there is one main ingredient that you may not have thought about, probably because you can't see it—air.

How to make ice cream by hand? ›

Vanilla ice cream:
  1. Scrape the ice cream base, add 1 cup whipping cream or fresh cream or homemade cream (malai) and few drops of vanilla essence.
  2. Put the container with above mixture in a bigger container with ice cubes.
  3. Whip the mixture using a manual or electric beater like the ones below.
Mar 18, 2021

Do you need egg to make ice cream? ›

You can make tasty ice cream without them, but there's a reason that almost every recipe published in the last 50 years calls for them. Here's why: After water, egg yolks are mostly fat and protein. Fat, which freezes differently and less hard than water, makes ice cream soft and creamy.

What are the 4 phases of ice cream? ›

The structural elements in ice cream can be divided into four categories: (1) fat phase (fat content and degree of fat destabilization), (2) air phase (air cell size and overrun), (3) ice phase (ice crystal size and ice fraction), and (4) unfrozen serum phase.

How to make ice cream in 6 steps? ›

How to Make Ice Cream
  1. Step 1: Ingredients. whole milk. ...
  2. Step 2: Mixing. mix 1 cup of whole milk with 3/4 of a cup of sugar in a big bowl. ...
  3. Step 3: Mixing (part 2) ...
  4. Step 4: Machine Mixing. ...
  5. Step 5: Scooping and Putting the Ice Cream Away. ...
  6. Step 6: Enjoy!

How much is 4 scoops of ice cream? ›

Generally, an ice cream scoop is 1/2 cup of ice cream or 4 ounces. There are usually 32 scoops in a gallon of ice cream, and about 4 scoops in a pint.

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