Beet ice cream: or, there is nothing new in the world

Ed forgot to cancel our CSA delivery, so he arrived last night with a big bag of goodies, including three beets. Last year, when faced with beets, I made soup. It was good. The color was scrumptious.

I wanted to do something different this time with the beets, and since I was making vanilla ice cream, I wondered if I could make beet ice cream.  I thought, “I’ve stumbled upon something entirely new!” Much to my dismay, when I googled “beet ice cream,” I discovered that my epiphany had been achieved by others before me. At least now I had a road map.  Three beet ice cream recipes turned up in my search, but each had a fatal flaw (a dozen eggs, ingredients listed in grams, and no eggs and corn syrup), so after reading through all of them, I adapted and revised, as we humans do, and came up with my own version. Despite my disappointment that I can not claim beet ice cream as my unique creation, at least I am putting something, even a slightly altered version, of a new thing in the world.

My neighbors returned my empty ice cream containers today (we’ve been gone for two weeks), and I mentioned that beet ice cream was brewing in my frig.  Only Tom sparkled, “I love beets.” I think my other neighbors recalled pickled beets and made those scrunched up faces that people make when brussel sprouts, boiled cabbage, or liver are on the menu.

My consolation — the awesome color of beet ice cream, pre-churning, and how it matches Gorilla Girl’s outfit. It is still in the to-be-churned stage, so I’ll have to post again with the report of the taste.  I do have to say that while I was roasting the beets in preparation for this adventure, the smell was heavenly.

Roasted Beet Ice Cream

3-4 beets
3/4 cup sugar
5 egg yolks
1/2 teaspoon Saigon cinnamon
1 vanilla bean
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup half and half
juice of 1 orange

Roast the beets at 350 for 1-2 hours. Peel and chop, then puree in a food processor with the juice of one orange. Add cinnamon and the vanilla bean to the beet mixture. Chill. Warm 1 cup half and half with the sugar. Whisk the five egg yolks in a small dish, then gradually wisk in the warmed half and half and dissolved sugar. Return the egg and half and half mixture to a sauce pan, and heat slowly, stirring constantly,  to form a custard. Strain the custard with a fine mesh strainer into one cup of heavy cream. Cool the custard. Mix the beet mixture with the custard and chill in the refrigerator for a few hours, then churn in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s directions.