Roasted Fig & Goat Cheese Ice Cream
Roasted Fig Ice Cream Recipe with Goat Cheese
Before we ever get off a plane to a new city, we’re researching some of the best places to eat. Our love of food extends to every corner of the city. Some would call it an obsession, but it’s simply a fun way to devour each city’s unique food culture, specialties and dishes. We’re not the only ones who pursue such culinary adventures and one of the best searches on our list is for local ice cream. Oh, the search for great handmade ice cream continues and so far, each city we’ve visited has a great representation of a sweet scoop.
Is it even possible to have ice cream overload? Apparently not for us. Well, at least not yet.
The last few months had us venturing to Amy’s Ice Cream in Austin, Three Twins Ice Cream in Point Reyes, Lappert’s Ice Cream in Palm Springs and our latest treasure find was The Penny Ice Cream Company in Santa Cruz. If you ever venture to this coastal town of Santa Cruz, please promise us you’ll stop by The Penny Ice Cream Company. The burnt salted caramel is to die for! And putting up with the intense dessert heat of Palm Springs is worth all the sun burns if you venture to Lappert’s Ice Cream. The soft, pillow-ly texture of Lappert’s is incredible.
Homemade is So Good
When we’re not on the road and hunting for the city’s ice cream, we’re whipping up different batches at home. It doesn’t take much to make a batch of homemade ice cream. A little patience, some thought, fresh ingredients and sweet fruit is all it takes to enjoy a truly fresh and homemade scoop of sweet joy.
Summer is one of our favorite seasons to make ice cream not only because of the favorable warm weather, but because ripe, sweet fruit is at it’s peak. It’s hard to decide what ice cream we’ll be making each week because every time we walk through the garden or farmers market, the fruit options are endless.
Over the last month we’ve been indulging in super sweet black mission figs. The sugar content and flavor on these little beauties is hard to resist when it comes to making ice cream. Coupled with some left over goat cheese in our fridge, the timing was perfect to whip up a batch of ice cream.
Slow roasting figs in the oven bring out the flavors and sweetness of this wonderful fruit. Adding the creamy tang of goat cheese to this magical fig compote mixture makes a wonderfully fresh and elegant ice cream. Even beyond the sound of it’s elevated status, this ice cream is incredibly satisfying.
So this is where we’re at in Summer: Ice Cream to the max! We can’t stop and neither should you.
Go make yourself of batch of what ever it is that your heart desires. Why? because Summer is still alive and at it’s peak.
Let’s celebrate Summer and Ice Cream until we drop!
Roasted Fig and Goat Cheese Ice Cream
Ingredients
Goat Cheese Ice Cream
- 8 ounces fresh goat cheese (225g)
- 1 1/2 cups heavy cream (360ml)
- 1 1/2 cups milk (360ml)
- 2/3 cup sugar (135g)
- 10 egg yolks
- pinch kosher salt or sea salt
- 2 Tablespoons bourbon (optional - but it does make the ice cream a bit softer and tastier)
Roasted Fig Puree
- 1/2 pound ripe figs (225g)
- 2 Tablespoons balsamic vinegar (30ml) , divided
- 1 Tablespoon brown sugar (15g)
Instructions
- Crumble the goat cheese into a large bowl. Set aside.
- Heat the cream, milk, and sugar in a saucepan over medium heat until it reaches a bare simmer.
- While the cream heats, in a medium bowl, whisk together the egg yolks. After the cream is heated, gradually pour the cream into the egg yolks, whisking constantly.
- Pour the mixture back into the saucepan and return to cooking over medium heat. Stirring constantly and scraping the bottom as you stir, heat the custard until it thickens enough to coat the back of a spatula, about 5 minutes. Stir in the salt and optional bourbon to taste and remove from the heat.
- Using a fine mesh strainer, strain the custard over the bowl of crumbled goat cheese. Gently whisk the goat cheese into the custard until it is smooth. Cool the custard for 15 minutes over an ice bath, stirring frequently. Place everything in the fridge to finish chilling completely, at least 3 hours.
- While the custard cools, make the roasted fig compote.
- Preheat the oven to 400°F.
- Slice the tough stems off of the figs then slice the figs into quarters. Place the figs in a baking dish and toss with one Tablespoon of balsamic vinegar and brown sugar. Cover the baking dish with foil and roast for 15-20 minutes or until the figs are soft.
- When cool enough to handle, puree the figs in a food processor or blender with the remaining balsamic vinegar (feel free to add more balsamic to taste). Put puree in a bowl and place in fridge to cool until ready to mix into ice cream.
- Begin freezing a container to put finished ice cream in.
- Churn ice cream custard in your ice cream machine according to manufacturer's instructions. Scoop about half of ice cream into prepared frozen container. Spoon a couple heavy lines of fig puree over the ice cream. Layer in the second half of the ice cream. Spoon another couple heavy lines of fig puree over the ice cream. Cut through the lines of fig puree with a spatula or spoon to spread the streaks of fig puree through the churned ice cream.
Made this for a cheese and wine party without an ice cream maker. Turned out amazing. We added bourbon to kick it up a notch. It was amazing and definitely the hit of the party.
Hi, just wanted to mention that Austin natives may argue that Lick Ice Creams has done much better than Amy’s. I actually came to this page in an effort to find a recipe similar enough to their goat cheese, thyme, and honey flavor so that I may try to recreate it at home. Also, Creole Creamery has carried a roasted fig and goat cheese flavor, too, if you’re looking to discover a few more great ice cream shops. Thanks for the recipe!
I agree, Lick is my favorite local ice cream stop. Their Horchata ice cream is what dreams are made of… Not to mention they have the best dairy free options for those with allergies or that are vegan.
Hello, ice cream of my dreams! This looks and sounds absolutely incredible! 🙂
Started a batch of this tonight! Update tomorrow, when it’s ready to be eaten. 🙂
Oh wow, an amazing blog you have here! I just discovered your site through the Food & Wine Digital Awards (I’m also amongst the 12 recipients). So glad I found you here, I will definitely follow you now!
Happy cooking & styling!
Anne
What a great looking ice cream recipe -I’m excited to try it, especially with the figs!
Mmm this looks good. I’ve made vanilla ice cream with fig swirl before, and I loooved it. I’m sure the goat cheese is a nice addition.
wow. This sounds absolutely incredible!!!!!! what a great idea!
I imagine the ice cream will be as delicious as your photos. Thank you for this, Charles
Bring on summer so I can make this!
This sounds amazing! And that’s coming from the girl who’s not so keen on anything goat-y 🙂
Just lovely! I first tried goat cheese in ice cream as a result of a Christina Tosi recipe from Milk Bar – it makes for a wonderful frozen flavor agent! And with the sweet, plump seasonal figs, I can only imagine ever putting my spoon down…
You two have really gone over the top with this ice cream…
Hi Liz– is this a good thing? 🙂 hope you are well!
I love goat cheese and figs together, so I know I would love this. And the bourbon is not optional in this house 🙂
love figs. over the weekend we went picking and made toasted sesame seed fig jam and wood fired pizza with figs, bacon and goat cheese. yum!
No, you can never have enough icecream. This is an ice cream I would like to try, such a unique combo.
Wow how beautiful! 🙂
I am going to show this recipe to my black mission fig tree. It has nary a fig on it. Perhaps if it realized I have plans, big plans for it’s figs, it will get busy!
Such a great combo, it was like goats and figs were separated at birth. This looks so creamy and sikly. I can not wait to try this recipe with my new ice cream marker
This sounds incredible!
This looks amazing and so creative! I love goats cheese! I never would’ve thought to turn it into ice cream, although I have seen a cheesecake recipe with it! Can’t wait to try it
What a unique combination. I’d love to try this. Your photos are beautiful as well.
love this ice cream! it’s so unique and the photos are gorgeous!
Researching restaurants and eateries is my favorite task before traveling too! This is such a sophisticated ice cream recipe, I love the flavor combinations!
Love how the recipe looks like! 😀 And we are almost using the same ingredients in our last post but with a compleatly different result. Must try this one 🙂
I’ve never had goat cheese ice cream before, but after this post, I’m dying to get to the farmers market to grab me some goat cheese! Thanks for sharing this amazing recipe!
I like figs so much and I can see them in stores, ready to use. Nice recipe!
It looks so rich and decadent and creamy. Now THIS is an ice cream base that I want to taste! Goat cheese and heavy cream – with those sweet figs. Yum! And I love the bowl it’s in!