Moorenko’s Pepita Ice Cream
I developed this recipe for La Pepita: The Power of Green and Pumpkin Seeds, an educational class with Pati Jinich at the Mexican Cultural Institute in Washington on the many varied uses of the pepita (pumpkin seeds), in March. We served it with a piece of pepita brittle, of course!
Ingredients
- Custard
- 8 egg yolks
- 8 ounces sugar
- 16 ounces whole milk
- 16 ounces heavy cream
- Pepita Puree
- 5 ounces raw pepitas (pumpkin seeds)
- Pinch of salt
Preparation
- Using a double boiler, pour egg yolks, sugar and mix into the top pot. Be sure water in lower pot is low enough to not touch the bottom of the pot with the custard mixture. Heat mixture slowly, stirring constantly. Do not bring to a boil.
- When mixture coats the back of a spoon, remove custard from heat and cool immediately by placing the pot in a cold water/ice bath. Measure out ½ cup and set aside for pepita puree. Once the mixture is cooled, mix in the cream and place custard in the refrigerator to cool completely, at least 2 hours, but preferably overnight.
- Combine pepitas, ½ cup reserved custard and salt, and refrigerate overnight. The next day, add mixture to a blender or food processor and blend until smooth. This may take a while and may require adding a bit more custard mix to attain desired smoothness. This should yield approximately 1 cup of pepita puree.
- To make ice cream, pour 3 cups of custard and the pepita puree into a bowl and mix well. Then freeze in ice cream maker according to manufacturer’s instructions.
Susan Soorenko
