Greedy Girl : Jamaican Rum and raisin vanilla bean ice cream

"Christmas is coming"

On a Sunday evening, you will find most Jamaicans on the hunt for their ice cream fix. The classics rum and raisin and grape nut ice cream are sure to be on the list of top choices. I am a little surprised that I don’t already have a rum and raisin ice cream on the blog. It’s not like I have never made it before. I guess I just forgot to post it. Its never usually my go-to choice for ice cream but growing up we always had it on hand because it was my father favorite.

Its safe to say that the readily available and affordable artisan ice-creams of yesteryear are long since gone. Today, unless you are willing to spend the money you are left with some cost-effective alternatives that skimp on ingredients and flavor, ever had a rum and raisin ice cream that contained no rum? You probably have. If you have ever looked at the nutrition facts some lists are pushing over 20 ingredients. Super overkill for a dessert that requires so little. For the most part, unless I really, really, am in the mood for ice cream, ill opt to make it at home rather than buy it.

For this recipe, I decided to depart from the norm. I usually make my ice creams without eggs, great flavors, however, egg custards usually impart more richness in an ice cream. And the egg custard can stand up to the bold flavors of rum and brown sugar. I opted for a dark brown sugar because of the molasses undertones. And I used a dark rum, I don’t recommend using a white rum at all, you want the color and deep flavors you get from a darker rum. If you are used to the store-bought rum and raisin ice cream this one will certainly give you a kick, check the greedy tips to see how you can tone it down to your liking. So here is your holiday dessert, oh, by the way, you are going to need an ice cream maker for this.

Ingredients (printable recipe)

5 egg yolks

2 cup full cream milk

1 ¾ cup heavy cream

½ cup brown sugar

1 vanilla beanstalk

½ teaspoon Nutmeg

½ teaspoon Cinnamon

1 cup dark rum

1 tablespoon white rum (optional)

½ cup raisins

Instructions

A few days before you want to make the ice cream take the raisins, white rum and dark rum and place in a sealable container to allow the raisins to soak up all the rum.
Using an electric mixer whisk together the brown sugar and egg yolks, it will get pale in color and become creamy and smooth and slightly fluffy
While that is mixing in a pan warm the milk, vanilla bean (seeds and the pod), cinnamon, and nutmeg, do not boil, warm slowly on a low heat
Slowly add some of this warm mixture to the whipped yolk and sugar to temper the eggs without scrambling them, about a ¼ cup at a time until more than half the milk mixture is incorporated
Pour the tempered egg mixture back into the spiced milk on the flames, add ½ cup of the rum, from the rum soaked raisins, cook until thick and coats a spoon (about 2 to 5 minutes) do not boil
Once it’s thickened, remove from the heat stir in the cream.
Place the mixture in a sealable bag in an ice bath and allow it to completely cool, sometimes ill pop the bag in the freezer for 20 minutes to ensure the base is a cold as possible before churning.
Remove the vanilla bean stick and strain the liquid to get a smooth base, this is optional, if the eggs were tempered then there would not be any curdling and no need to strain, however, if you had some curdling strain before churning.
Churn in your ice-cream maker until it’s like a soft serve ice cream, I usually let it churn until the ice cream maker shuts off.
Add the ½ cup of rum soaked raisins to the soft serve ice cream towards the end of the churning cycle
Pour contents in a metal loaf pan or keep it in the churn bucket covered with saran wrap and place in the freezer for 4 hours best overnight to allow the ice-cream to harden.

Greedy tips

This amount of alcohol is needed for the real rum flavor however, it lowers the melting point of the ice cream. So, expect the ice cream to be scoopable right out of the freezer and to melt a bit faster than usual.
If you want an intense a rum flavor experience, add the ½ cup rum as stated in the recipe
For a milder rum experience add only add ¼ cup of the rum
For a subtle rum experience only add the ½ cup of rum soaked raisins. The rum from the raisins will infuse into the ice cream overnight. This will have the more traditional rum flavor. This, however, only works if your raisins have been soaking in the rum for 2 or more days.
If you don’t have vanilla beans use 1 tablespoon of vanilla extract and you may eliminate the egg tempering stage by whisking the egg yolks and sugar together until fluffy, then whisk in the cold milk, cinnamon, vanilla, and nutmeg to it. Place that entire mixture on the stove then slowly and gradually heat until thickened, this method also should eliminate curdling and scrambling of the eggs.