Ice Cream Meets Corn at Tulip Noir

A silky spin on Indiana’s most-prized produce, the cream of the crop.

The plump, bi-colored sweet corn Hoosiers love to slather with butter during sweltering summer days or munch on at the State Fair only makes up a minuscule amount of Indiana’s corn production. And the smaller, softer golden kernels are testy little things; as soon as the crop is removed from the stalk, the sugar particles quickly revert to starch. Bitter-cold Indiana winters actually aid the nutrients in the soil, so expect our beloved vegetable to be just right this harvesting season (July to November), making it the ultimate base for this ice-cream recipe from Tulip Noir.
INGREDIENTS
» 2 ears organic sweet corn (unfrozen)
» 3 cups organic heavy cream
» 1 cup organic milk
» 3/4 cup sugar
» 8 egg yolks
» 1 teaspoon pure vanilla
DIRECTIONS
1. Whisk together egg yolks, vanilla, and sugar in a bowl and set aside.
2. Slice the corn off of the cob into a separate bowl.
3. Pour the cream and milk into a saucepan, add the cobs, and bring mixture to a simmer for 15 minutes.
4. Remove the cobs from the cream and milk and gently scrape the residue off of the cobs back into the mixture. Then dispose of the cobs.
5. Remove the mixture from the stovetop and slowly add it to the bowl containing the egg yolks, vanilla, and sugar.
6. Put the new mixture back on medium heat while stirring continuously for two minutes.
7. Strain the mixture, add the corn kernels, and let it cool.
8. Pour the mixture into your ice-cream machine and set the timer for approximately 20 minutes.
9. Remove the ice cream and freeze it in a plastic container for at least four hours.

More tasty ice-cream coverage from around Central Indiana appears in the July 2014 issue of IM, including an Indy fro-yo roundup.