Black Sesame Ice Cream Recipe
by Nicola Lando
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30 minutes prep time
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15 minutes cook time
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Intermediate
Black sesame seeds are popular throughout Asia both in savoury and sweet dishes. For this black sesame ice cream recipe we toasted black sesame seeds in a pan before blending them into a thick, rich paste. Stirred into a simple, creamy ice cream base before freezing, this black sesame paste gives the ice cream a sophisticated, muted grey colour and delectable nutty intensity.
Serve the ice cream topped with a sprinkle of sesame seeds, or for the perfect contrast of textures have a go at our sesame seed brittle recipe. The dough is rolled out very thinly between two sheets of parchment paper before baking to create a delicate but satisfying snap.
For the black sesame ice cream Serves: 6
- 75g black sesame seeds
- 2 tsp sesame oil
- 3g ice cream stabiliser
- 100g caster sugar
- 4 egg yolks
- 375ml milk
- 125ml double cream
- 1/2 to 1 tsp fine sea salt
For the sesame seed brittle
- 25g butter
- 1 tsp orange juice
- Pinch of fine sea salt
- 10g corn syrup or glucose
- 15g flour
- 35g icing sugar
- 15g black sesame seeds
- 15g white sesame seeds
To make the black sesame ice cream
- Roasted the black sesame seeds in a pan on a medium heat for 5 minutes, being careful not to burn them.
- Transfer the seeds to a food processor and whizz until it starts to resemble a thick paste (this can take 10 minutes or more, depending on the strength of the food processor).
- Add the sesame oil and whizz for a further 10 minutes until the paste is very fine and runny enough to pour. Set aside.
- Mix together the ice cream stabilizer and sugar, and add to the egg yolks. Whisk until pale and fluffy.
- Heat the milk until just boiling. Leave to cool briefly, and then slowly pour over the sugar and egg yolk mixture, whilst the whisk is still running. Pouring slowly is important, so that the surface of the eggs don’t overheat and scramble.
- Return the egg yolk, sugar, and milk mixture back to the pan, and heat gently whilst stirring until the temperature reaches around 70°C, or the liquid coats the back of a spoon. Remove from heat, and whisk in the cream and black sesame paste. Taste, and adjust salt as necessary.
- Leave to cool, and then refrigerate until cold. Churn in an ice-cream maker, or freeze, stirring every hour until it solidifies – around 4-6 hours. Garnish with a shard of sesame seed brittle to serve.
To make the sesame seed brittle
- Melt the butter in a pan over a low heat.
- Add the orange juice, salt and corn syrup and stir to combine.
- Sieve together the flour and icing sugar. Mix in the white and black sesame seeds.
- Gently fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients to form a thick paste. Refrigerate for 1 hour.
- Pre-heat the oven to 180°C, Fan.
- Cover a baking tray with baking parchment.
- Use a rolling pin to roll the paste out sandwiched between the baking parchment and a layer of cling film. Roll to 1mm thickness.
- Bake for 5-7 minutes until golden but not burnt.
- Remove from the oven and immediately score the brittle using a sharp knife or pizza wheel. Alternatively, leave to cool and snap using hands.
About the author
Nicola Lando is the co-founder and CEO of Sous Chef, where she has spent more than a decade sourcing, tasting and selecting specialist ingredients, cookware and tableware from producers around the world.
She trained at Leiths and later completed a stage at a Michelin-starred London restaurant, experiences that helped shape Sous Chef’s original mission: to give home cooks access to the same exceptional ingredients used by professional chefs.
Today, Nicola leads much of Sous Chef’s product sourcing and ingredient selection, working directly with producers and travelling internationally to food fairs, farms, mills and manufacturers. She tastes thousands of products each year and has built deep expertise across storecupboard ingredients, olive oil, condiments, spices, preserved foods and specialist cooking ingredients.
She holds an olive oil sommelier certification from ESAO in Spain, Imperial Executive Education’s Certificate in Nutrition for Health: Evidence-Based Tools and Strategies certificate; as well as studying Food Safety and Control at University of Greenwich.
Nicola also writes recipes and ingredient guides for Sous Chef, combining practical cooking experience with first-hand knowledge from producers, suppliers and specialist food makers. Her work focuses on helping cooks understand how to choose better ingredients, use them well, and get more flavour from their cooking.
