Silver Queen Corn Ice Cream

I made them guess what the secret ingredient was and they didn't even come close.  Coconut and cake was all they could come up with but no one ever thought of sweet Silver Queen Corn as an ingredient for ice cream.  I'd heard of it before and thought it would go swell with my peach - blueberry cobbler.  It's summer and all I'm making use of the best offered this season in delicious recipes.

I've enjoyed corn this summer in a number of ways; grilled, stewed, sautéed but the sweetness of the Silver Queen variety lends itself to a special twist of vanilla ice cream.  I noticed a recipe for sweet corn ice cream in Garden & Gun Magazine which peeked my interest but I wasn't satisfied and a little more research led me to a wonderful custard based version from Spoon, Fork, Bacon.  I think this is truly worthy of the effort and time it takes.  Remember the key to this smooth, sweet summer treat is really sweet corn and patiently straining the ingredients and custard (twice). Get ready for a memorable summer treat.

1 cup Silver Queen Corn cut from about 3-4 ears, reserve any milk and cobs
2 cups heavy cream
1 cup whole milk
1 cup superfine sugar (Castor) divided
6 egg yolks
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla

Combine corn, cobs, milk, cream and half of the sugar in a heavy bottomed sauce pan.  Simmer 5 minutes util sugar is dissolved.  Cover and turn off heat and let steep for one hour.  Remove the cobs and discard.  Pour the corn mixture into a blender and puree until smooth.
Strain through a double fine mesh strainer, pressing as much of the liquid through as possible.  Pour the mixture back into the sauce pan.

In a separate bowl combine the egg yolks with the remaining sugar and salt, beat with a whisk until light and fluffy.  Temper the eggs with one cup of the liquid mixture and beat vigorously to keep yolks from scrambling.  Add the egg mixture to the sauce pan and the corn mixture.  Heat over medium low, stirring and cook until the custard coats the back of the spoon.  Stir in the vanilla and stain through fine mesh lined with cheese cloth. Squeeze the cloth pressing as much of the custard through as possible.  Chill over night and then freeze in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's directions.  Makes about 2 quarts.