London Fog Ice Cream

The Earl Grey tea with the hint of vanilla combined with the creaminess of the ice cream makes this London Fog ice cream hard to resist! 

Anyone else excited for the Royal Wedding this weekend? Personally, I cannot wait to see Meghan's dress! I love her style, and she is becoming such a style icon. I'll bet her dress is fabulous and will have an impact on wedding fashion for years to come. In honour of the Royal Wedding,  I made this delicious London Fog ice cream. 

I am a tea person. My shelves are filled with various varieties. From oolongs to matcha, I love them all but I always start my day with a cup of earl grey. I love a London Fog latte. The hint of vanilla with the bergamot in the tea and the creaminess of the milk - delish! One of my favourite little ice cream shops in town makes the most delicious London Fog ice cream and with their made in house cinnamon waffle cones it is heavenly! As soon as I opened my ice cream maker for Christmas, I knew that I wanted to recreate their London Fog ice cream at home. 

Ice cream always takes way longer to make then I expect. I alway forget about the multiple cooling times required to chill the custard and the ice cream. The ice cream bowl for your ice cream maker also has to chill for 12-15 hours! So while the active time for making ice cream isn't much, there is a lot of waiting around and anticipation for the finished product. Let me assure you that its worth it! Since the ice cream bowl for the mixer has to chill overnight, I decided to cold steep my earl grey in the milk overnight to extract the most flavour from the tea. By cold steeping, the tea maintains its flavour and doesn't get bitter over time. The finished ice cream has just enough Earl Grey flavour that you can identify the type of ice cream you are eating but it's not overpowering and the light vanilla flavour comes through as well. 

London Fog Ice Cream

Note: Place your ice cream maker bowl in the freezer the night before you plan to make the ice cream. The ice cream custard requires 4 hours of cooling before churring and an additional four hours in the freezer after its been churrned.

Ingredients

• 1 ½ c milk

• 6 tbsp loose leaf earl grey tea

• 4 large egg yolks

• ⅔ c sugar

• 1 tsp vanilla extract

• 1 ½ c heavy cream

Directions:

The night before place your ice cream maker bowl in the freezer to chill. Combine cold milk and earl grey tea leaves. Allow to steep in the fridge overnight. Strain tea leaves before use.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and sugar until pale. The mixture will be a bright yellow at first but should pale with mixing.

In a medium saucepan, over low to medium heat, heat the tea infused milk and vanilla until lightly simmering, remove from heat.  To temper the eggs, ladle about half of the milk mixture into the egg mixture. Whisking constantly to avoid scrambling the eggs. Slowly pour the tempered egg mixture into the saucepan with the remaining milk mixture. Return the mixture to the heat, and stir slowly but consistently until the mixture has thickened enough to coat the back of a spoon. Remove from heat. Stir in cream.  Chill the mixture in the fridge for at least 3 hours or up to overnight.

Once chilled completely, transfer to ice cream maker and churn ice cream according to the directions of your ice cream maker. It should take around 20 minutes to churn your ice cream and will be finished when the ice cream has a soft serve consistency. Once churned, transfer ice cream to a freezer container. Freeze until solid (approx. 4 hours).

Earl Grey Cookies

With a hint of vanilla and a whole lot of earl grey flavour these earl grey cookies make for the perfect afternoon treat!

Those that know me, know I am a tea drinker. I may or may not have a slight obsession. I probably have at least 30 different teas in my ever growing collection. The tea I gravitate to most is Earl Grey. As part of my morning ritual, I drink a big warm mug of earl grey tea. One of my favourite earl grey teas is the Cream of Earl Grey. It has a lovely creamy vanilla flavour to it. I tried to capture that flavour in these cookies. 

These cookies have a slightly different texture then my traditional sugar cookies. They are a bit of a hybird between a sugar cookie and a shortbread cookie. A traditional shortbread cookie is typically butter, sugar and flour. In this cookie I have included an egg making it more like a sugar cookie. However, I kept the ratio of butter, sugar and flour the same as shortbread cookie. These cookies have a denser crumbly texture and a richer buttery flavour then my usual sugar cookie.

Earl Grey Cookies

Makes: 24-30 cookies

Ingredients

1 c butter, at room temperature

1 c icing sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

1 3/4 c flour

2 tbsp earl grey tea leaves (approx. 4 tea bags)

Directions

In the bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with a paddle attachment, on medium-high speed cream together butter and icing sugar until light and fluffy. On medium speed beat in egg & vanilla until just combined. On low speed add flour & earl grey leaves to mixture. Mix until just combined. Dough should come together into a large ball. Divide dough into 2 pieces. Roll into logs (approx. 2 inches in diameter), wrap in plastic wrap. Chill in fridge for minimum 1 hour.

Pre-heat oven to 350F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Remove logs from plastic wrap. With a sharp knife cut cookies off log 1/3-1/2 inch thick.

Transfer cookie to prepared baking tray, spacing them out baking 12 per tray. The cookies won't spread much when baking. Bake for 12-16 minutes, or until edges are golden brown. Baking time will vary based on the thickness of the cookies. Allow cookies to cool for a few minutes on the baking sheet before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.