Ever since I got good at barbecue, the idea of smoked desserts appealed to me. I think they’re unique, and really show off your skills.
I see lots of people do cobblers and cakes, but quickly realized no one ever talks about my favorite dessert- ice cream! Well then, challenge accepted!
Looking over the ingredients for ice cream, and trying to figure what would take on smoke the best, I opted to try smoking the cream as it seemed it would be the easiest ingredient to take on smoke. Plus, I could smoke a big batch of it, and experiment with ratios and flavors and what not.
The first challenge was figuring out how to keep the cream at a low temperature to prevent bacteria growth while running a smoker that will exceed 200 degrees.
My idea was to take a smaller pan and cast it in ice inside a larger pan. The thought was the ice would take a little more time to melt, and keep the cream at a safe enough temperature to prevent bacteria growth.
The inner pan down and filled the outer pan with water. 
The pan encased in solid ice
Once the ice was solid, I added my cream and set in the smoker. I added a probe so I could monitor the temperature.
I hit it with a mix of pecan and apple wood ad set it directly above my water pan, which normally runs cooler. It took about 20 minutes for the ice to melt and the cream to raise up to about 60 degrees. Good enough, lets see what happens!
The smoked cream tasted rather bitter. I believe my mistake was hitting it with TOO much smoke. Next time I’ll be sure to back it down a bit more.
I proceeded to make the first batch, a vanilla mint flavor, and used a mostly 50/50 split of smoked cream and regular cream. Sweet is one way to offset bitter, so my thought was the regular cream, combined with the milk and other ingredients would help temper the bitterness a bit, and it did- but not enough for my liking. My girlfriend, on the other hand, really seemed to enjoy it.
The next day, I decided to make a mocha flavor, only this time I used 1/2 cup smoked cream and 1 1/2 cup regular cream. This was further diluted with 1 cup of milk. The final product was much better, but still a little too bitter for me.
HOWEVER: something magical happened the following day.
I was prepared to throw both batches out and start over, but decided to give each of them one more taste. Oh my god were they amazing!
The vanilla mint didn’t hit nearly as hard, and gave you a bit of smoke flavor on the back end, which really complimented the vanilla and peppermint flavors. I personally feel it’s still TOO much, but it’s not as overpowering or bitter as the first round.
The mocha did the same thing- giving you a great smoke flavor that paired really well with the chocolate and coffee in the ice cream. Since I used a lower ratio of smoked:regular cream, this was much more palatable
I still need to refine the technique a little, and go lighter with the smoke. I also need to figure out a better ratio of smoked cream to ingredients for the final product.
Other observations: I think part of the reason I tasted so much smokiness is because I was in it for so long. When you do any kind of BBQ, you get smoke in your clothes, on your skin, in your hair… you smell it for days. Since your sense of smell is tied directly to your sense of taste, it boosts the flavor. I think this helps explain the differences in flavor experienced between my girlfriend and I.
Anyway, there it is.. My first dabble with smoked ice cream. They can’t all be winners, and there is some good learning opportunities here. I have more experimenting to do, so stay tuned!
