Sparkling Rosé Ice Cream

Sparkling Rosé Ice Cream

Sparkling Rosé Ice Cream - A Recipe

HBL Note: Okay, this post has absolutely nothing to do with books. I hope my loyal readers will forgive me. It all started when I posted a picture of this Sparkling Rosé Ice Cream on Instagram last week and I got lots of requests for the recipe. It is important to note I am NOT a chef. I'm barely even a cook. I don't particularly enjoy cooking, either. But I got a craving for Sparkling Rosé Ice Cream last week and when I went online I couldn't find a recipe ANYWHERE. How is this not a thing in a world with Frosé? So I adapted an ice cream recipe I found online to suit my cravings...and voilà! 

Oh, and because I'm friends with a food blogger, I know that you should try recipes more than once. So I did. I double tested my recipe so that I can share with you my pro (ha!) tips.

Sparkling Rosé Ice Cream - A Recipe

Sparkling Rosé Ice Cream Recipe:

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 bottle of rosé 
• 2/3 cup golden brown sugar
• 2 cups heavy whipping cream
• 1 cup half and half
• 4 egg yolks
• 1 vanilla bean
• Pop Rocks for garnish
• Food coloring

INGREDIENTS W/ NOTES:

• 1 bottle of rosé (some people say you should cook with cheap wine and drink the good wine. But I like to use good ingredients while cooking so use a rosé you know you like! I tried this recipe with Sparkling Rosé and regular Rosé - it tasted the same.)
• 2/3 cup golden brown sugar (the recipe I adopted this recipe from just called for brown sugar. Well, like I said before, I'm not much of a cook so when I arrived at the grocery store I found there was light brown sugar, golden brown sugar, and dark brown sugar. I went in the middle. But I wonder if light brown sugar would have been better since rosé is a lighter wine? Or maybe even white sugar? Try it out, let me know what you think!)
• 2 cups heavy whipping cream (Just an FYI, I used Land o' Lakes. I'm not sure if it matters.)
• 1 cup half and half (See above.)
• 4 egg yolks (Double check that you actually have four eggs or you'll be making another trip to the grocery store.)
• 1 vanilla bean (These are expensive as f*ck. If you know of an alternative, let me know! I almost left it out because vanilla and rosé didn't sound like a good combination. But can you make ice cream without vanilla? I'm not sure, I don't cook. So I included it and it was good.)
• Pop Rocks for garnish (I found them at Michaels of all places!)

INSTRUCTIONS

• Pour the entire bottle of your favorite rosé into a large pot and simmer over medium heat for about an hour-ish or until you have about a cup of liquid left. Set aside. This first step kind of hurt my heart as I felt like I was ruining a perfectly good bottle of wine. But it is worth it so hang in there!
• Pour the brown sugar, heavy whipping cream, and the vanilla bean caviar (so you have to cut the very expensive vanilla bean in half and scrape out the innards, also known as caviar) into a medium pot and whisk together until combined. Go ahead and throw in that vanilla bean pod as well. I guess it adds some flavor? We'll take it out later.
• Stir constantly over medium heat until you see it start to steam, but before it boils. Instructions like these freak me out. What if it bubbles a little before it starts to steam? Is that boiling? Have I ruined it already? Mine bubbled a bit before I saw some good steam and nothing was ruined. Don't be a worry wart like me.
• Beat your egg yolks with a fork until "light colored." The other recipe said you could beat your egg yolks with a mixer but there was no way I was going to dirty another appliance I already have enough dishes to do because of this ridiculous ice cream. Also, what does light colored mean? How light? I don't think my egg yolks ever really changed color so I just whisked them with a fork until I was tired of it and it looked well-mixed to my amateur eye.
• Now we remove that vanilla bean pod...I hope it added some flavor because it was kinda annoying having it in the pot while I was stirring constantly. 
• SLOWLY add the cream mixture to the egg yolks. Does it matter if you add the cream mixture to the egg yolks or the egg yolks to the cream mixture? I don't know. But I followed instructions and SLOWLY added the cream mixture to the egg yolks and I was freaking out about how SLOWLY I needed to go. This is the scariest part of the recipe because they say the eggs can curdle if you pour too quickly and I did not make it this far to ruin the recipe. The first time I poured the cream mixture into the egg yolks I poured it directly from my extremely heavy large pot. My arms were DYING at the end so the second time I made it I poured the cream mixture into a smaller mixing bowl with a pour spout. I recommend this to avoid pain the next day. I poured extremely slowly, like a trickle. I may have over done it.
• If you make it successfully through pouring the cream mixture into the eggs, you have to pour it back into the pot (this is why I wondered if I could just pour the egg yolks SLOWLY into the cream mixture...but don't risk it! It isn't worth having to start over.) Cook over medium heat until the mixture thickens into a custard...mine was the consistency of thin pudding more than custard but I was EAGER for some ice cream already! Remove from heat.
• Now you're supposed to pour the mixture through a strainer. This made me mad as I had to dirty another kitchen tool, but it did get some chunks of something out and I guess I wouldn't want chunky ice cream. So go ahead and do this step.
• Stir in half & half and your rosé reduction (finally!)
• Let the mixture chill in the fridge for an hour or two. I think you already know by now that I just chilled for one hour or until it felt kinda cool, whichever one took less time.
• Add four drops of red food coloring - four drops is the perfect amount for that pretty pink color. Believe me, I tested it. Mix thoroughly.
• Put chilled mixture into your ice cream maker and turn on. Hopefully you had your ice cream maker bowl thingy in the freezer overnight so it is nice and frozen! I let the ice cream maker run for about 30 minutes, checking half way in hopes my ice cream maker was faster than others but it didn't look anything like ice cream after 15 minutes. 
• I went ahead and tried it right after it came out of the ice cream maker and it was good. I had some taste-testers (including non-family so that I could be sure they were telling me the truth) and they said it was good. But personally, I thought it tasted best after I put it in the freezer overnight. 
• Find a fancy ice cream dish (or really, just eat it out of the container, who care?) and scoop out some ice cream. Top with pop rocks and ENJOY!

Sparkling Rosé Ice Cream - A Recipe