It’s been quite a busy winter, and my ice-cream making has definitely suffered. But this week, I finally put my foot down and got creative in the kitchen. Ever since the surprising success of my Jalapeño-Chocolate Sorbet, K and I have been envisioning other ways to incorporate the pepper into desserts.
Have you ever tried candied jalapeños? I’ve had plenty of pickled jalapeños, but never candied ones. I spotted a recipe for Meyer lemon ice cream with candied jalapeños on Pinterest and decided to play around with idea. My mom makes an easy and delicious strawberry sauce for shortcakes, and that sounded like a good compliment to jalapeños.
The night before I wanted to serve the ice cream, I got to making the candied jalapeños. The process is pretty simple: let chopped jalapeños simmer in sugar water for a bit, and then pop the pieces of pepper onto parchment paper to cool overnight. Because I was making this for K, I tried to preserve as many seeds as possible. So much of the heat of jalapeños is trapped in those little white seeds.
As soon as I got home from work the next day, I quickly whipped up the strawberry sauce for a fruity swirl in the ice cream. Just sugar and slightly defrosted strawberries puréed in the blender. My mom usually mashes the strawberries by hand to preserve some pieces of strawberries, making for a rustic and comforting texture. But since I was freezing this, I figured a purée was better.
The ice-cream base is just a simple sweet cream recipe; no egg yolks or cornstarch. It does freeze a bit harder than recipes with yolk or cornstarch, but I knew I’d be letting this ice cream soften a bit before scooping to allow the strawberries and frozen bits of jalapeños to soften slightly.
Look at that snow-white color of the cream base offset with deep red strawberry swirls and festive green candied jalapeños! This is definitely one of the prettier ice creams I’ve made.
Strawberry-Swirl Ice Cream with Candied Jalapeños
{Makes 1 quart}
Inspired by this and this recipe
For Candied Jalapeños
• 3 jalapeños, de-seeded and chopped (for more heat, keep in some seeds)
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup water
For Strawberry Swirl
• 1.5 cups strawberries, fresh or frozen
• 1/3 – 1/4 cup sugar (I recommend using 1/4)
For Ice-Cream Base
• 2 cups heavy cream
• 1 cup milk (whole or 2%)
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• Pinch of salt (I used this, a gift from my mom)
To make candied jalapeños:
• Combine sugar and water in small saucepan and heat to a boil. Lower heat to medium-low, whisking until sugar has dissolved completely.
• Add jalapeños and simmer for about 10 minutes. Turn of heat and drain liquid.
• Spread jalapeños out on wax paper and cool completely (preferably overnight)
For strawberry swirl:
• If you’re using frozen strawberries, let them thaw a bit. Place strawberries and sugar in a blender or food processor and blend until puréed.
• Keep purée in fridge until you need it.
For ice-cream base:
• Combine the heavy cream, milk, sugar and salt in a medium saucepan and cook over medium heat, whisking from time to time until the sugar has dissolved completely and has barely reached a simmer.
• Turn off heat and pour mixture into a metal or glass bowl. Let it cool a bit and then place then refrigerate until cold, at least an hour. While you’re waiting, start the strawberry swirl.
Bringing it all together:
• Pour chilled ice-cream mixture into your ice cream maker and freeze per your mixer’s instructions. For my Cuisinart ice-cream maker, this means 1) turn on machine, 2) slowly pour mixture in, and 3) leave the thing alone for at least 15 minutes.
• When the ice cream is done, scoop out enough to fill the bottom of an airtight container about an inch high. Then, sprinkle some candied jalapeños and drizzle some strawberry sauce onto the ice cream. Add another layer of ice cream. Repeat the process until you’re all out of ice cream. I had some leftover candied jalapeños and strawberry sauce, which I used later for serving!
• While you can serve the ice cream immediately, my preference is to pop the container into the freezer until firm. When frozen to your liking (2 hours for me), simply scoop into a dish and garnish with some of the reserved candied jalapenos.
The verdict? Those candied jalapeños have a kick to them! Of course, leaving the seeds in definitely cranked up the heat. Regardless, I wouldn’t serve this ice cream to those with sensitive taste buds. But spice lovers will rejoice. The contrast between the sweet, milky ice cream and the hot bits of candied jalapeño kept my taste buds. The jalapeños were nice and soft even straight from the freezer, thanks to the candying. The smooth and refreshing strawberry swirl was a bit icy and hard (thus my recommendation above to add more sugar), but it provided cool relief to the heat. K polished off his cup with ease, and commented on how this ice cream would be perfect on a warm August afternoon. And I’d just have to agree.
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