Bubble gum ice cream

Keywords:	Ice Cream & Sorbets ¦ Dessert ¦ Restaurants ¦ Paris ¦ Alain Ducasse ¦ Seriously Unusual
Translations:	Français
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I was finishing lunch at Alain Ducasse's Spoon and Wine restaurant in Paris when the waiter brought some ice cream - the day's special. I took a spoonful in and nearly coughed. Such an intense taste. So familiar. But what was it? I had a friend take a bite and we pondered for 15 minutes. Finally my friend said, 'It tastes like Malabar on steroids'. The waiter confirmed. 'But how do you get the taste, you buy some liquid from the factory?'. The waiter explained they cooked actual bubble gums in milk for an entire night at a very low temperature.

I know bubble gum does not sound like too much of a gastronomic ingredient, but if Ducasse used it, it must be good enough for me, right? Armed with this culinary excuse I started looking for a recipe.

Here is the one I found, it works great, you do not have to cook it for an entire night and I'm confident it will work with other bubble gums. But try it with the malabars if you can, they are made by Cadbury France and have been a hit since 1958. And the French are very particular about their food.

Take 70 grams of Malabar bubble gums or about 10 Malabars.

Remove the papers (really). You can cut them in little cubes to get more flavor, or put more Malabars.

Mix a cup (240ml) of cream with a cup (240ml) of milk in a saucepan, and bring to the boil.

In a stainless bowl mix 5 egg yolks with 120 grams white sugar.

Whisk the mixture until fluffy.

Pour the filtered bubble gum-milk-cream mix into the egg-sugar mix, beating constantly.

Put back on the stove and heat gently until you reach 85°C or the mixture become thick but not solid. It is imperative that you beat the mixture during the entire process and that it does not boil, otherwise you'll end up with a solid flan.

Let the mixture cool, then put in the fridge until it's very cold. Don't put in the freezer though. Start your ice cream machine and pour the cool mixture in the bowl.

Stop the machine when the ice cream is thick. Transfer to in a container and put in the freezer.

That's it! You could also add some red food coloring to go from yellow to pink. The ice cream is delicious and very pleasant to most guests. Don't tell them how it's made before they taste it otherwise all they'll taste is their prejudice.