Lemon-Speculoos Ice Cream

If I ever open my own ice cream shop some day, this will be my signature flavor. The combination of cakey, spicy gingerbread and aromatic, creamy lemon ice cream is so nicely balanced and addictive...

Before I start raving about how much better my own ice cream is compared to commercial ones, I have a confession to make: I used to be a non-believer. Sure, I churned out batches now and then from my Cuisinart machine, but the ones I made were so rich that I felt like I was eating clotted cream. I like my ice cream creamy, but with enough icy-ness to be refreshing as well. When I was making this recipe, I lowered the ratio of cream to milk to 1-1, and that made all the difference.

Now I make homemade ice cream once a week :)

(Vanilla ice cream with leftover caramel sauce)

Lemon-Speculoos Ice Cream
Adopted from The Perfect Scoop

2 large lemons
100 g sugar
1 cup 2% milk (the recipe specified whole milk, but I only had 2%. I like the resulting consistency a lot)
1 cup heavy cream
pinch of salt
3 egg yolks
Speculoos, crumbled

Zest lemons into blender. Add sugar and blend until zest is very fine. Warm the milk with sugar, 1/3 cup heavy cream, and salt in medium saucepan. Let infuse for 1 hour.

Rewarm the lemon mixture, slowly pour into whisked egg yolks, whisking constantly. Scrape back into the pan and cook until thickened. Strain the custard and stir into remaining 1 cup of cream. Chill mixture, then churn according to manufacturer's instructions. Fold in crumbled speculoos.

Speculoos
Adopted from The Perfect Scoop

30 g salted butter, room temperature
45 g packed brown sugar
1 tablespoon molasses
1 egg yolk
70 g flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground allspice

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Beat butter and brown sugar until smooth. Stir in molasses and egg yolk. Stir together flour, baking soda, and spices, then stir the dry ingredients into the butter mixture. Pat the batter in a 5 inch circle on the baking sheet, then bake for 18 minutes. Break into bite-sized chunks once cooled.