Creamy & Sweet Thai Tea Ice Cream

My mind is always going- always. Even when sleeping my brain resists submitting entirely to mindlessness. This is especially true for my creative brain which is constantly on and thinking of new ideas. Today’s recipe is one of those ideas that came to me recently. Thai iced tea is a lovely, creamy, sweet, orange Asian drink that my husband and I love. If you are unfamiliar with this bright, orange colored drink then I highly recommend giving it a try some time. A couple of weeks ago it occurred to me that Thai tea would work well with my basic vanilla ice cream recipe. Hmmmmmm. Time for some experimentation time. The results didn’t last more than 24 hours, and my husband declared it his new favorite dessert. So, today’s post is featuring my Thai Tea Ice Cream.

Thai tea is something you can pick up at an Asian grocer. It is loose tea that often includes spices such as anise star, tamarind, and sometimes orange blossom water. When we order it at restaurants, they add sweetened condensed which is delicious in the tea and makes a great cold drink. It was the sweetened condensed milk that got me thinking about making ice cream with Thai tea. Basically, I just added Thai tea mix to my basic vanilla ice cream recipe. The resulting taste was creamy, rich, and spicy almost like Asian style pumpkin spice ice cream.

Before launching into the recipe a few words on whipping cream. Whipping cream in general makes an excellent ice cream. Heavy whipping cream makes an out of this world creamy ice cream. Having made ice cream with each on their own or combined I feel that combined is best. The heavy whipping cream really accentuates the creamy tea characteristic of Thai iced tea. And now for the recipe!

Thai Tea Ice Cream

2 cups of whipping cream

2 cups heavy whipping cream

1 can sweetened condensed milk

1/2 cup Thai tea mix

First, put both regular and heavy whipping cream in pot and add the 1/2 cup of Thai tea mix directly to whipping cream. Mix the two and bring mixture to a simmer over medium low heat. Remove the pot from heat as soon as it starts to simmer and strain tea from whipping cream. I strain this several times to get most of the tea but allow some tea fragments to remain in cream. After this stir in whole can of sweetened condensed milk. Cool mixture in the fridge. Process chilled mixture in ice cream maker according to instructions. Enjoy!