Cinnamon Ice Cream
I’ll be completely honest with you. I was both excited and nervous about making this ice cream. Excited, obviously, because it’s cinnamon ice cream and it’s now September and I had all kinds of delicious visions of apple pie with cinnamon ice cream dancing in my head. A little nervous because, well, I was afraid that the ice cream might taste like a giant piece of Big Red gum. Not that there’s anything wrong with Big Red, but it’s just so, well, cinnamon-y in an obnoxious-drunk-person-at-the-bar kind of way. I was so elated when I took my first freshly-churned spoonful and the clean, light cinnamon flavor danced around my mouth in a graceful-ballerina kind of way.
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Now aside from the obvious pairings of pies and crisps, I thought that this ice cream would make a fabulous base for a sundae with sauteed apples and a drizzle of caramel. My suspicions were correct – this is a fantastic combination of warm and cold, sweet and tart. A fabulous way to enjoy an ice cream sundae once the fall season settles in. Love. Love, love, love.
Cinnamon Ice Cream
Ingredients
- 1 cup (244 ml) whole milk
- ¾ cup (150 g) granulated sugar
- Pinch of salt
- Ten 3-inch cinnamon sticks, broken up
- 2 cups (476 ml) heavy cream, divided
- 5 egg yolks
Instructions
- 1. Warm the milk, sugar, salt, cinnamon sticks and 1 cup of the heavy cream in a medium saucepan. Once warm, cover, remove from the heat, and let steep at room temperature for 1 hour.
- 2. Rewarm the cinnamon-infused milk mixture. Remove the cinnamon sticks with a slotted spoon and discard them. Pour the remaining 1 cup heavy cream into a large bowl and set a mesh strainer on top.
- 3. In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the egg yolks. Slowly pour the warm mixture into the egg yolks, whisking constantly, then scrape the warmed egg yolks back into the saucepan.
- 4. Stir the mixture constantly over medium heat with a heatproof spatula, scraping the bottom as you stir, until the mixture thickens and coats the spatula (should reach 170 degrees F on an instant-read thermometer). Pour the custard through the strainer and into the cream. Stir until cool over an ice bath.
- 5. Chill the mixture thoroughly in the refrigerator, preferably overnight, then freeze it in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's directions.
Notes
Did you make this recipe?
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What a comforting ice cream! I would love to put a scoop of this in a mug of hot apple cider.
You are so right! A perfect ice cream for fall!
This looks so beautiful. And I LOVE the apple topping :)
I liked the look of that ice cream on its own, but then when I saw it with the sauteed apples, it put it over the top! Looks great!
Now that autumn is here this sounds like something that will be very welcome. Lovley!
Cinnamon ice cream is my all time favorite! Bring on the fall flavors of ice cream! YUM!
I love how you described your fear of the flavor and then how you described how it actually tasted! I made this ice cream this summer, and we loved it! We drizzled D. Lebovitz’s caramel sauce over the top of it and ate it sundae-style. Now that apple season is here, I will definitely be making this again to go with a fresh homemade apple pie (I don’t put very much cinnamon in my pie, so it will be the perfect balance of flavors!).
I totally understand your concern! I bought a box of this cinnamon tea once and it was so spicy I couldn’t even drink it! And that’s saying a lot because I LOVE cinnamon.
This sounds dreamy though. because, well. I LOVE cinnamon!
I LOVE this ice cream and it does go perfectly with apple pie in case you were wondering. :) I’m obligated to make FOUR batches around Thanksgiving every year to go with dessert!
Oh my gosh, this looks incredible and I bet it tastes even better! My mother-in-law’s favorite is peppermint, but I know she would love this even more… Got to find an excuse to make it for her one of these days!
It looks delicious and I’m going to have to try it . . . as I was reading your post my eyes kept going back to the picture looking for little brown specs, but then I read through the recipe and I love that the flavor comes from steeping the cinnamon sticks in the warm milk. My current fave homemade ice cream is chai latte, and this past weekend I experimented with chai latte popsicles . . . so I’m thinking that the cinnamon would be bringing the spices down a notch and have a more subtle flavor . . . this is on the list to try . . . but I also appreciate the tip from Heather about Schwann’s!
This ice cream is perfect for the fall weather! I would love a massive bowl of this right now!
I’m an avowed cinnamonaholic; but not sure I can recall having cinnamon ice cream. I would love it topped with some melted Mexican chocolate…which is tinged with a bit of cinnamon. Have a feeling my not recalling status to change very soon. Appreciate the recipe!
This could actually be my favorite ice cream recipe I’ve made to date. I loved it so much. I made it for Thanksgiving last year and everyone is requesting it again. The sundae looks fabulous.
Love it! I made cinnamon spice ice cream last year, and now it’s one of my favorite ice cream flavors!!
Yummy! I think it would be awesome to add some brown sugar in place of some white sugar to make this even more caramelly and fall-like. We have an ice cream place here in the south that has a cinnamon ice cream and a pumpkin ice cream in the fall. I love having a scoop of each!
Glad to hear that it wasn’t over powering and looks so good with those apples. Yum!
I can almost smell the cool cinnamon ice cream and those warmed apple slices!
Yum, this flavor sounds delicious! Great with any sort of pie, maybe pumpkin pie. Or with a berry crisp- I am drooling!
Seriously just gorgeous! I need a bowl at this instant for breakfast :)
This sounds so good. It will be excellent with apple pie at Thanksgiving.
I’m glad you got past the initial fears and made it… and that was wonderful. This is the first Perfect Scoop recipe I declared was “a must,” yet here I am one year later and still haven’t made it. We’d get cinnamon ice cream as a treat once a year when it was available from Schwann’s. My grandma would buy a tub and we’d go to town. It was incredible. Nothing at all like Big Red gum, thankfully. Now we know we can make it all year long without worry. And I hope to do just that!
Cheers,
*Heather*
This would be sooo good on top of a fruit cobbler!
I love cinnamon, although I’m glad to hear this ice cream isn’t too over powering. It sounds and looks great!
This is one of my all time favourite ice cream flavours! I adore cinnamon but its so hard to find here. I’ve never seen it sold in the shops – only from specialist ice cream places. How I wish I had an ice cream machine to make my own. Yours looks divine and so creamy and smooth
yum, now i just need an ice cream maker:-)
i can smell this from here,..looks so perfect
Well I LOVE Big Red gum – not that we get it very often over here in NZ!! I’m lucky enough to live on a sheep and beef farm and we have our own farm milk/cream from the house-cow and eggs from our chooks. I love making ice-cream and I love cinnamon, so I will definitely be trying your recipe very soon! Thx so much :)-
In my hometown, the local ice cream shop made cinnamon ice cream and it was always the first to sell out! And that says a lot in a world of chocolate ice creams!
I’m so glad to have your recipe! :)
Looks like a bowlfull of Heaven.
Plan B