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Coal Region recipes · Shared Working-Family Classics

Teaberry Ice Cream

Also known as: Wintergreen ice cream

Bright pink and sharply wintergreen — Pennsylvania's own ice cream flavor, from the mountain plant that gave it the name, in a cooked custard base churned at home.

Heritage Pennsylvania creamery tradition, from a native mountain plant
Time 40 minutes, plus chilling and churning
Yield About 1½ quarts

Ingredients

Check off as you cook.

Method

  1. Warm the milk and cream in a heavy saucepan until steaming but not boiling.
  2. Whisk the egg yolks with the sugar and salt until pale and thickened.
  3. Temper the yolks: whisk a ladleful of the hot dairy into them, then pour that back into the pan.
  4. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until the custard thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon — 170 to 175°F. Do not let it boil, or the yolks will scramble.
  5. Strain into a clean bowl, then stir in the teaberry extract, the vanilla, and the food coloring. The pink is cosmetic, but it is what people expect of teaberry.
  6. Chill completely, at least four hours or overnight, then churn in an ice cream maker and freeze until firm.

Sources

The proportions are the ones the Pennsylvania Milk Marketing Board published, credited there to a Schuylkill County native; that source prints its ingredients without a method. The cooked-custard procedure below is our own, and the safety note's chemistry comes from the second source.

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