A month ago or a couple months ago or something (I’ve sorta lost track of time) I hired a web designer person to help me redesign the blog. When Nick and I had our preliminary meeting, he confessed to me that he was tinkering with homemade beet ice cream. I think it goes without saying that I hired him chiefly because of this.

Ever since that day, I’d been thinking about beet ice cream, but I was hesitant to make it because I felt like I’d be stealing his idea or something.

When the redesign was finally finished, I told him I wanted to make some ice cream to thank him for all his extra hard work. And that’s when he challenged me to make the beet ice cream. I don’t know if I’ve ever been so excited about making ice cream before, HA. That was a joke. Every ice cream excites me, but it’s especially dramatic when I’m attempting to make some one’s ice cream dream come true, as you should know.

I knew what I had to do: simply roast some beets, peel and puree them, infuse some cream with them to make beet cream, and proceed with my regular recipe, albeit with slightly less sugar (and I might reduce the sugar even more next time…next time I make beet ice cream). Piece of cake! The finished product, well, it tasted full on like beets. It was an alarming yet stunning shade of hot magenta. Yep, so pretty much exactly what I was going for.

Beet Ice Cream

Makes 1 quart

Ingredients:

• 1 scant cup of pureed beets from approximately 7 to 10 roasted beets
• 1 2/3 cups heavy cream
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup plus 2 Tbsp sugar
• pinch of salt
• 4 egg yolks

Directions:

1. To roast the beets, preheat the oven to 400 degrees. If your beets have greens attached, snip them off and wrap each beet individually in foil. Place beets on a baking sheet and roast for 45 minutes to one hour or longer, depending on the size of the beets. The beets are done when they can be pierced easily with a knife. Unwrap the beets and let cool for a few minutes. Using your fingers or a paper towel, pinch and peel the skins off the beets. Cut about 7 beets into quarters, puree in the food processor, measure, then puree more if needed.
2. In a small saucepan, combine the cream and pureed beets, and bring just to a simmer. Remove from the heat, cover, and let steep for about 30 minutes.
3. Prepare an ice bath: set a medium bowl over a larger bowl filled with ice water so that the bottom of the medium bowl is in the water. Place a fine mesh strainer over the medium bowl.
4. In a small bowl, whisk the egg yolks with 2 tablespoons of the sugar. In a medium saucepan, heat the remaining 1/2 cup of sugar, the milk, and the pinch of salt, stirring until the sugar dissolves. Pour some of the milk mixture into the bowl with the egg yolks, whisking constantly, then pour the egg mixture back into the medium saucepan. Stir with a silicone spatula over medium-low heat until the custard is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.
5. Pour the custard through the strainer and into the medium bowl set over the ice bath. Then, pour the beet cream through the strainer and into the custard. Discard the beet solids that are trapped by the strainer. Stir the mixture over the ice bath for a few minutes, until cool. Chill the mixture thoroughly in the refrigerator (about 4 hours), then churn in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions.