
You might be thinking that I weigh 400 lb and all I eat are baked goods and desserts, because let’s be honest, that’s all I’ve been posting recently. This recipe is no exception. Can I explain without sounding like I’m making excuses? I’ll give it a shot.
Lately, we’ve been eating staple Pennies on a Platter recipes that are either easy, freezable, or make a lot to last a while… such as the Pasta Fagioli, Chicken Pockets, Enchilada Lasagna, Italian Meatloaf, Cornflake Chicken Strips, and Chicken Taquitos. Then other nights we’ll order in pizza and watch American Idol with friends. Why? Because I’ve been so busy at work lately that by the time I get home, I just do not have the motivation to prepare a new recipe, let alone take a photo and write about it. I’ve been dying to take new photos of some of the recipes above, but couldn’t even find the time to do that!

Ben has been begging me to make him this ice cream flavor for a long time (it’s his favorite) and I finally just got around to doing it the other day. Poor guy. A baby shows up and suddenly his favorite foods are on the back-burner.
Can I tell you how sad I am that I didn’t make this ice cream sooner? Ben grew up eating this ice cream while I never heard of it. I had no way to tell if this recipe was a good comparison to other Black Walnut ice cream recipes until Ben took a bite and said “This is perfect!” What relief, considering I had a tough time finding a good recipe to use, so instead used David Lebovitz‘ Coffee Ice Cream recipe as a base and played from there. I faintly remember Ben saying it was even better than the ice cream he grew up with. Recipe…success!
Black Walnut Ice Cream
1 1/2 cups whole milk
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup chopped black walnuts, divided
pinch of salt
1 1/2 cups heavy cream, divided
5 large eggs yolks
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
Preheat oven to 350˚F. Line all of the walnuts in a single layer on a small baking sheet. Toast in the oven for 5 minutes and then let cool.
Pour 1 cup of the cream into a large bowl; set aside. Whisk together the egg yolks in a separate medium bowl; set aside.
Using a medium saucepan, heat the milk, sugar, half of the black walnuts, salt and the remaining 1/2 cup of the cream until warm. Cover, remove from heat and let steep at room temperature for 1 hour.
Rewarm the mixture then slowly pour into the egg yolks, whisking constantly. Scrape back into the saucepan.
Heat over medium heat while stirring constantly with a heatproof spatula, until the mixture thickens and coats the spatula (about 10 minutes). Pour the custard into the 1 cup cream through a mesh strainer and stir. Press on the walnuts to extract as much of the walnut flavor as possible, then discard them. Mix in the vanilla and stir over an ice bath until cool.
Chill the mixture thoroughly in the refrigerator, then freeze in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s directions. After transferring the ice cream from the maker to the container, stir in the remaining black walnuts. Freeze until ready to consume.
Source: Adapted from The Perfect Scoop, by David Lebovitz
Filed under: Desserts, Ice Cream | 4 Comments »















