Red Beet Ice Cream Recipe

The recipe requires extracting the juice of raw beets with a juicer. We don’t have a juicer and opted for liquefying the quartered beets in our blender, with the addition of a little water. It worked quite nicely and we continued on to strain the beet liquid and reserved the required beet pulp for use further on in the recipe. He also tops this ice cream with candied walnuts and a walnut syrup, but we only had pecans in the pantry so the pecans replaced the walnuts.

Ingredients

2 lbs (910 g) Red Beets, peeled & quartered
2 c (475 ml) Heavy Cream
2 c (475 ml) Milk
3/4 c (150 g) Sugar
8 Lrg. Egg Yolks

For the red beet ice cream. Put the beets through a vegetable juicer, reserving the pulp; you should have about 2 c of juice. (If you are lacking the fancy machinery of a juicer, do the following: Puree the beets in a blender, adding just enough water to allow the beets to liquefy. Strain the beets thoroughly. Don’t forget to reserve the pulp.) Place the juice in a saucepan and reduce over low heat, skimming as necessary, to about 1/4 c. Strain the liquid into a container, cover, and place in the fridge.

In a saucepan, combine the reserved beet pulp with the cream and milk. Bring to a simmer, cover, and remove from the heat for about 30 min.

Strain the liquid and measure out 3 c (discard any extra.) Return it to the saucepan, add half the sugar and bring to a simmer, stirring to dissolve the sugar.

Meanwhile, in a bowl, whisk the egg yolks with the remaining sugar until they have thickened slightly and lightened in color. Gradually whisk about 1/3 of the hot liquid into the yolks to temper them. Return the mixture to the saucepan and heat, stirring with a wooden spoon, until the custard has thickened and coats the back of a spoon. Pour the custard into a bowl set in an ice-water bath and let cool.

Strain the cooled custard into a container, cover, and refrigerate for a few hours, until cold, or overnight (for the creamiest texture).

Stir the reduced beet juice into the custard and freeze in an ice cream machine. Remove the ice cream to a covered container and store in the freezer for at least 2 hours, or up to 2 days.

The red beet ice cream is so delicious!!

Not really knowing how the beet flavors would transcend to an ice cream, we were both curious and cautious. But the creamy, smooth and full, sweet beet flavors in this dessert were so beautiful! One word of caution: this recipe follows the fate of the beet root in many steps- whole, peel, cut, pulp, juice, strain, reduce, strain, temper and strain some more. You’ll be seeing red stains everywhere from your hands to the kitchen. Just don’t wear your favorite white shirt for this concoction!

Oh,  did we mention that you’ll be straining a lot in this recipe?