Jenkins and I visited Ping’s Cafe on Main Street (review to come) a while back and one of my favourite dishes from that dinner was dessert. Black sesame desserts have always been one of my favourite dessert items, whether it be pudding made by my mom, bubble tea, or ice cream. So when I tried the delicious black sesame ice cream from Ping’s Cafe, I made it my mission to try and recreate the same thing at home.

This was my my second attempt at black sesame and it turned out pretty well although the colour was not as close to black as I would have liked. This recipe is also quite creamy so the next time I attempt this, I may play around with the cream to milk ratio to see what I like.

Here is what I’m trying to recreate (from Ping’s Cafe):

Black Sesame (Goma) Ice Cream Recipe
adapted from savorybites.com

Makes 1.5L

Ingredients
6 tbsp black sesame paste (in Vancouver, you can buy this from Fujiya, although another option is to make your own using roasted black sesame seeds and grinding them with a mortar & pestle)
3/4 cups whole milk
2 egg yolks
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 tbsp ground roasted black sesame seeds

Directions

1. If your sesame seeds have not been roasted, roast the seeds in a pan using a medium heat. Toss frequently until you can smell the sesame seeds. If using whole seeds, grind in a food processor. Set aside.
2. Combine 1/4 cup of sugar with the black sesame paste and whisk until smooth. If you don’t have black sesame paste, you can also the paste with an equal amount of ground black sesame seeds. Keep in mind that the texture of your ice cream will be a bit grainy although the flavour should still be there.
3. In another large bowl, whisk the remaining 3/4 cup of sugar with the egg yolks until the mixture becomes smooth and is a pale yellow colour.
4. Heat the milk in a small sauce pan until the edges just start to bubble (before the whole thing starts to boil).
5. Remove the milk from the heat and slowly add the milk to the yolk mixture while stirring to ensure the eggs don’t cook.
6. Pour the egg, sugar, and milk mixture back into the sauce pan and heat over medium low heat. Ensure you stir constantly as the mixture thickens or else you will get lumps. Once the mixture coats the back of a wooden spoon, immediately remove from the heat.
7. Strain the custard.
8. Slowly mix the custard in with the black sesame mixture. Make sure you add the custard slowly and in small portions or the mixture will separate.
9. Optional – you can cool the black sesame custard mixture by putting the bowl of custard in an ice bath. Make sure none of the water gets into your custard though.
10. Add the cream and ground sesame seeds into the cold ice cream mixture.
11. Churn the ice cream in an ice cream maker for about 35 minutes or until it reaches your desired consistency.
12. You can eat the ice cream at this point but I like my ice cream to harden a bit so I transfer the mixture to an air-tight container, cover the ice cream with plastic wrap, and snap on the lid.

Tagged as: Recipes