Once in a Blue Moon

Do you remember as a child before your first day of school, the night before – you couldn’t sleep, couldn’t decide what to wear, couldn’t get rid of the mixture of excitement and anxiety. Sometimes certain experiences, scents, songs, etc. render you nostalgic of a previous time. I guess anyone with a set of eyes could diagnose me with a case of nostalgia. Whether the reason being that I just returned from wandering the streets of New Orleans solo or because I officially start graduate school in three days, (I personally think it’s the latter,) I am feeling nostalgic. A couple of days ago, my birthday passed, and while I don’t really care about the numerical value of my age, I think what is more daunting is the unknown that goes along with getting older and growing up.

Back in my hometown, right before the new millennium, we had a local shopping mall with about 10 stores total – including Burdines (RIP) – and my absolute favorite ice cream shop, which served my absolute favorite ice cream flavor – blue moon ice cream ❤ To be completely honest, I have no idea what was in it, and I used to contemplate if it was just a blue-hued vanilla. If my memory serves my correctly, it was a creamy blue tinted ice cream, smooth with no chunks of anything, and when I say blue, I mean a shade in between sky and robin’s egg blue. I would get two scoops of it in one of those small Styrofoam bowls, and I would spoon it into my mouth while my mom would shop at Burdines, (though I’m pretty sure she would snack on my ice cream, as mom’s do). Shortly after the new millennium, that entire plaza got shut down – you know, small town, bad economy… – and pops up a shiny new shopping center with no ice cream parlor. And along with the closing of the plaza was the closing of my sweet blue moon relationship, until…today.

Blue Moon Ice Cream (technically a custard)

Ingredients:

• 2 egg yolks
• ½ cup milk
• ½ cup sugar
• ¼ tsp salt
• 2 cups heavy whipping cream
• ½ tsp vanilla extract
• 3 tsp instant vanilla pudding mix
• ½ cup fresh raspberries pureed
• 1 tsp lemon extract
• 3 drops blue food coloring

1. Begin by separating two eggs, and beat the yolks with ¼ cup of the sugar in a medium sized bowl.
2. In a sauce pan, over low-medium heat, heat up the milk, ¼ cup of the sugar, salt, and heavy whipping cream. Stir constantly, and heat until bubbles start forming around the edges of the pan.
3. Remove the scalded milk mixture from the heat, and spoon it into the egg mixture 1 tablespoon at a time to temper the eggs, stirring constantly.
4. Once fully incorporated,  pour the combined mixture back into the sauce pan and heat on low-medium heat until the mixture coats the back of a spoon (when you trace a line with you finger on the back of the spoon, it should leave a distinct trail).
5. After that consistency is achieved, pour the mixture into a medium bowl and whisk in the vanilla pudding mix, vanilla extract, pureed raspberries, and lemon extract. Make sure to add the blue food coloring last to achieve the blue hue that you want.
6. Refrigerate the mixture for at least two hours, and then follow your ice cream maker’s directions for making ice cream!

Blue Moon Ice Cream

Now I have a tip for storing home-made ice cream – I’ve learned that the best container for storing ice cream is wide and shallow. It allows for easier scooping in my opinion. Next time – I think I may add more blue food coloring…and take more pictures for the next post!

❤ The Food Scientist