Culinary Adventures: Strawberry Ice Cream with Pink Peppercorns

I label this as a culinary adventure, because not everyone is going to be interested in putting peppercorn in their ice cream.  I totally get that, but thought it was such an interesting idea that I wanted to photograph it and share it here!

Also, I was looking through this book a few days ago, and came across this recipe for the first time.  I took one look and thought "where on earth would you get pink peppercorn?"  Later that day, Fox and I took a field trip to Whole Foods to pick up some cacao nibs, and while I was browsing the other bulk spices, lo and behold, there was a bottle of pink peppercorns!

Of course I had to buy some to test this intriguing recipe out.

Verdict:  Delicious!  A little weird and time consuming, but an awesome idea, and really an interesting flavor.  Adam said that he felt like he smelled the pepper coming through, rather than tasted it, and I totally agreed.  It was a weird sensation, but it added a unique element to the ice cream.

Strawberry Ice Cream with Pink Peppercorns:
From Flavorful (I have aspirations to make a few other recipes out of here, because so many of them look incredible!) 

1 1/4 cups whole milk
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
1 cup sugar, divided
2 Tbs light corn syrup
4 large egg yolks
1/8 tsp salt
1/4 cup buttermilk 
1 tsp vanilla
8 oz strawberries, hulled and chopped
1 tsp peppercorns, ground with mortar and pestle

In a small saucepan, combine the milk, cream, 1/2 cup of sugar, and the corn syrup.  Heat over medium heat, stirring constantly, until sugar is dissolved.  Remove the mixture from the heat and in a separate bowl, whisk the yolks with 1/4 cup of sugar and the salt.

Whisk in 1 cup of the hot milk mixture and vigorously stir, to keep the eggs from curdling.  Pour the egg mixture into the saucepan with the rest of the hot milk mixture, and heat to 180°F, stirring constantly.

Remove from the heat, pour it through a strainer into a clean bowl.  Set the bowl containing the mixture into an ice bath in a sink or larger bowl.  Let cool.  Refrigerate for 2 hours.

In a new bowl, combine the strawberries and sugar.  Stir until the strawberries are coated in the sugar.  Refrigerate them for 45 minutes.

Pull the milk/egg mixture out of the fridge after 2 hours.  Add buttermilk and vanilla and stir.

Pour the cold strawberries and juice into a blender and add 1 cup of the chilled milk.  Run the blender until the mixture is smooth.  Add the crushed peppercorns and run again for about 30 seconds.

Pour the milk mixture into the ice cream maker and the strawberry mixture into an ice cream maker and let it run for about 20 minutes, or until the ice cream is a creamy, fluffy mixture, similar to a soft serve ice cream.  Put it in a different container, and freeze for 2 hours.  It is best the first day, but still delicious day two (and probably day three... we haven't gotten that far, yet).