Tiny Urban Kitchen

Exploring Food from Boston to Hong Kong and Beyond

  • About
    • About Me
    • Tiny Urban Kitchen’s Favorite Equipment
    • Press
  • Recipes
    • Recipe Index
    • Asian
      • Chinese
      • Taiwanese
      • Thai
      • Malaysian
      • Japanese
      • Korean
    • Appetizers
    • Soups
    • Salad
    • Pasta
    • Noodles
    • Rice
    • Vegetarian
    • Meat
    • Sweets
      • Baking
      • Ice cream
      • Cookies
    • Misc
    • Kawaii (Cute)
  • Travel / Restaurants
    • United States
      • Boston
        • Jen’s Picks
        • Boston
          • Allston
          • Back Bay
          • Brighton
          • North End
          • South End
        • Cambridge
          • Kendall Square
          • Inman Square
          • Central Square
          • Harvard Square
          • Porter Square
          • North Cambridge
        • Somerville
          • Davis Square
          • Union Square
        • Greater Boston
          • Brookline
          • Arlington
          • Belmont
          • Watertown
          • Newton
          • Lexington
          • Concord
          • Burlington
          • Natick
        • Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard, Berkshires
      • Vermont
      • Maine
      • New York
      • Washington DC
      • Philadelphia
      • Orlando
      • Chicago
      • Las Vegas
      • California
        • Los Angeles
        • San Francisco
        • Napa
        • Sonoma
      • Seattle
      • Hawaii
    • Canada
      • Montreal
      • Canadian Rockies
      • Toronto
    • Argentina
    • Europe
      • United Kingdom
        • London
        • Oxford
      • Italy
        • Rome
        • Piedmont
      • France
        • Paris
        • Bordeaux
      • Spain
        • Madrid
        • Barcelona
        • Catalonia / San Sebastian / Girona
      • Germany
      • Belgium
        • Brussels
      • Switzerland
      • Greece
      • Finland
      • Norway
      • Denmark
    • Japan
      • Japan Guide
      • Tokyo
      • Osaka
      • Kyoto
    • China (Mainland)
      • Beijing
      • Chengdu
      • Shanghai
      • Shaanxi
      • Shenzhen
      • Xiamen
      • Yunnan
    • Singapore
    • Hong Kong
    • Malaysia
    • Taiwan
    • Thailand
    • Australia/New Zealand
  • Michelin
    • Formerly had a star
    • Michelin Recommended
    • 1 Star
    • 2 Stars
    • 3 Stars
  • Jen’s Eating Guides!
    • Boston Restaurants
    • Boston Dishes
    • Tokyo
    • Hong Kong
    • Las Vegas
    • Napa / Sonoma
    • Taiwan (night markets)
    • Taiwanese (casual eats)
    • Street Foods of Bangkok (Part I)
    • Street Foods of Bangkok (Part II)
    • Kitchen Equipment
  • Trip Reports
    • All trip reports
    • Around the World Trip Report
    • New England
    • New York
    • Washington DC
    • Las Vegas
    • California
    • Canada
    • Europe
    • Florida
    • Japan
    • China

Toasted Black Sesame Ice Cream

June 12, 2009 by Jennifer Che 5 Comments

Black Sesame Ice Cream

I first decided to try making this ice cream because Bryan had tried it at the Chinatown Ice Cream Factory in New York. I have since made this many times and it has always been very popular.

Note: Over all, I’ve found that the best way to make this ice cream is to make it over 2 days.

Day 1
Make the Cream Base

2 cups half & half
2 cups heavy cream
3/4 cup sugar
4 egg yolks

Heat the half & half, heavy cream, and sugar in a pot on medium low heat until the sugar is dissolved. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg yolks together. Slowly pour the egg yolk mixture into the hot cream mixture while continually stirring.

(Note – the stream in my picture is WAY too fast! I was having trouble holding the camera and pouring at the same time. If you do it, pour it much more slowly and thus you will have a thinner stream. Also, you would ideally be whisking while you are pouring, but alas, I only have 2 hands.

 Cook over medium heat until the mixture thickens slightly and coats the back of a spoon (~8-10 minutes). Important! Don’t let the mixture boil, otherwise it will curdle!

This step is optional. You can filter your mixture through a sieve to ensure super smooth ice cream. This is the first time I did that (partly because I had some egg solids due to my poor pouring & lack of mixing earlier!) If you did everything right, you shouldn’t have too many egg solids.

Finally, let the mixture cool a bit and then put in the refrigerator, ideally overnight, but at least until cold (several hours?).

Day 2
Pour the cream mixture into the ice cream maker and make ice cream according to the manufacturer’s instructions. I personally have a Lello Gelato Pro which I LOVE because it has its own condenser and thus I can make ice cream whenever I want on a whim.

While the ice cream maker is whirring away, toast 1/3 cup of black sesame seeds in the toaster oven. I spread them out in a thin layer and just pop them in the toaster oven. Don’t worry if you hear some popping noises. It’s just some of the seeds “exploding” open. Not to worry. The toasted sesame seeds should smell fragrant.

IMG_0226

Grind up the sesame seeds in a spice grinder. I’ve found that it’s important to freshly grind the seeds because the powder quickly loses flavor as it is exposed to the atmosphere. You should end up with a glorious, luxurious black powder.

Once the ice cream maker is done (around 40 minutes), stir in the sesame powder. The ice cream should still be soft enough that you can do this very easy.

IMG_0234

Once it’s completely incorporated, store in small containers. I find that the ice cream freezes much more quickly when you divide it up into a couple smaller containers.  After around 4 hours or so (but ideally overnight), you can serve! Bon appetit!

©2009-2014 Tiny Urban Kitchen
All Rights Reserved

Filed Under: Dessert, Ice cream, Recipe, Vegetarian

« Homemade Croutons
Dabin »

Recent Posts

  • Summer Palace Iconic Wine Lunch – Hong Kong April 29, 2022
  • Lucciola – Italian food at The Hari Hotel in Wan Chai March 22, 2022
  • Studio City by Cali-Mex Causeway Bay Hong Kong March 17, 2022
  • Petrus Hong Kong March 8, 2022
  • Ichiran Tonkotsu Ramen Hong Kong March 6, 2022
  • James Suckling Wine Central – Hong Kong March 2, 2022
  • Birthday at Roganic Hong Kong February 23, 2022
  • Caprice Hong Kong – Four Seasons February 19, 2022

Latest Chinese recipes!

Comments

  1. Joy says

    June 15, 2009 at 2:47 pm

    Cool, you’re on foodgawker!

    Log in to Reply
  2. Anonymous says

    February 2, 2010 at 3:52 am

    i LOVE black sesame ice cream! just moved back to the states from japan and miss the food so much. can’t wait to try this! thank you!

    Log in to Reply
  3. blossomflavours5 says

    August 20, 2010 at 4:28 am

    Blossom Flavours are one of the leading manufacturers and exports for wide range of Food Flavours for Bakery, Emulsion concentrate, Confectionery, Flavours Concentrate for Beverage Manufacturers,for more details visit http://www.blossomflavours.com/ourproduct.html

    Log in to Reply
  4. Colin Martin says

    June 18, 2012 at 5:01 am

    I made a few adjustments to make this better after making it according to the recipe twice.

    1.) never pour the egg directly into the cream. Temper the eggs first by adding small amounts of hot cream to the eggs, in order to bring the temperature up without worry. trying to drizzle egg yolks into a hot cream base is just a nightmare, and is easily avoided by tempering.

    2.) this recipe freezes as hard as a rock. Reserve 1/2 cup of the heavy cream, and just before you put the ice cream into the machine, whip up the other 1/2 cup of cream into medium or stiff peaks, and fold it into the ice cream base. once combined (stir as little as possible! fold!) add to maker.

    3.) The sesame is very oily. I pressed it through a sifter in order to get some aeration, and it let the sesame distribute properly through the ice cream. If you don’t break it up, it will clump.

    4.) after several minutes of churning, add the ground sesame into the ice cream as it churns. You’ll get much better results with fewer lumps of sesame and better flavor distribution. add the sesame to the churning ice cream in small doses (I did it in four.) and the results are vastly improved.

    5.) don’t go by the suggested churning time here: use your own maker’s suggested times (my cuisinart is 25-30)

    Overall, the recipe base is perfect, but folding in the whipped cream makes this much softer and creamier, as well as the rest of the stuff mentioned above, are what will turn this into something entirely more awesome.

    Log in to Reply
  5. Anonymous says

    January 18, 2013 at 8:26 pm

    How much does this recipe make???????????

    Log in to Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Welcome to Tiny Urban Kitchen!

JenChe

Hi, my name's Jen and welcome to my cooking, eating, and travel site! I am a Boston to Hong Kong transplant, born and raised in Ohio with parents from Taiwan. Feel free to head on over to the About page if you want to learn more about me, or just explore away, maybe starting with the Recipe Index or one of the travel pages! I hope you enjoy this site!
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Flickr
  • Google+
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Archives

Categories

Awards

Saveur
PFB

BostonGlobe

Most Recent Posts

Summer Palace Hong Kong Iconic Wine Lunch

Summer Palace Iconic Wine Lunch – Hong Kong

Lucciola The Hari Wan Chai

Lucciola – Italian food at The Hari Hotel in Wan Chai

beef quesadilla

Studio City by Cali-Mex Causeway Bay Hong Kong

Petrus Hong Kong

Petrus Hong Kong

Ichiran Hong Kong Ramen

Ichiran Tonkotsu Ramen Hong Kong

James Suckling Wine Central Hong Kong

James Suckling Wine Central – Hong Kong

Roganic Hong Kong

Birthday at Roganic Hong Kong

Caprice Hong Kong

Caprice Hong Kong – Four Seasons

Majordomo Los Angeles – David Chang’s Foray into the West Coast

Playa Amor Los Angeles

France!

Restaurant Le George Paris
Yam'Tcha Paris
David Toutain Paris
Divellec Paris
Breizh Cafe Paris

Kawaii! (Cute)

Norway!

logo
Food Advertisements by

Chinese Recipes

Okra with Chicken
logo
Food Advertisements by

Shop & Support us!

Spain!

Girona Spain
Amelia San Sebastian

Japan!

Bulgari Il Ristorante Luca Fantin
Sukiyaki Imafuku Tokyo
Sushi Ishimaya Tokyo
Disney Sea Tokyo
Tempura Fukamachi Tokyo
Shinjuku Gyoen

Cambridge restaurants

logo
Food Advertisements by
Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2022 · Foodie Pro Theme by Shay Bocks · Built on the Genesis Framework · Powered by WordPress