Homemade Earl Grey Custard with Apricot Jam and Cinnamon Scone Pieces

So obviously Lizzy and I are obsessed with ice cream.  I mean, we started a blog to review ice creams, after all! The obsession, however, goes beyond that: I occasionally MAKE MY OWN ICE CREAM!  I've made a few flavors in the past, but this is the first time I'm reviewing one on the blog.

This weekend I made Earl Grey Custard with apricot jam and cinnamon scone pieces.

My friend Alex's family makes jams every year.  Last year we mixed some of the peach jam into graham cracker ice cream.  This year he had apricot jam and gave me his ONLY jar of it so I could use it in ice cream.  I immediately thought of doing a 'tea time' themed ice cream using the jam, but decided to go with Earl Grey instead of the more common green tea ice cream.  After these two elements, I thought, "Why not just go bonkers and add some scone pieces? Why not go absolutely bonkers and add some cinnamon scone pieces?" So I did.

SCONES.

I used the recipe for Earl Grey Tea ice cream from The Van Leeuwen Artisan Ice Cream Book (recipe also found here), and baked scones using this recipe with the addition of cinnamon and cinnamon chips.

This was the first time I made a custard base (involving egg yolks) and I was super nervous that I was going to cook the egg yolks and end up with Earl Grey scrambled eggs, but luckily I was patient enough to avoid this.  The custard base holds up very well in the freezer.  It comes out nice and creamy rather than hard, an common issue with homemade ice cream.  It was a thick custard base, but not overwhelming.  I don't think I would use this for a delicate flavor, but it worked well with the strong tea flavor.

Earl Grey tea is traditionally made with black tea and bergamot (a citrus fruit) oil.  I just Tazo Tea because I read that it was one of the best readily-available Earl Grey teas, but I know nothing about tea so please correct me if I'm wrong!  The strong black tea flavored the base well, but there was enough sugar that even people on the fence about tea would probably like the ice cream.  (I love tea, so next time I make this I will try to make it more strongly tea-flavored).  The bergamot oil translated more as a scent than a taste.  It gave the ice cream a delicate, floral, citrus aroma that was a nice addition to the overall experience.

JAM.

The jam was awesome. It had huuuuuggge chunks of apricot that froze into a nice, gooey texture.  The jam was quite thick (in other words not watery) so it didn't turn icy when frozen.  The bergamot scent/apricot taste combination was out of this world.

That's right. I made scones and put them in ice cream then put the ice cream on a scone.

The scones added a light hint of cinnamon to the flavor profile which I thought enhanced the apricot and bergamot elements, but didn't really stand out on it's own.  This was okay because one more strong flavor might have been overwhelming.  The scones weren't great; my oven is messed up so any time I bake something the bottom burns and the top is undercooked.  This meant the scones weren't as thick and flaky as they could have been, but a different oven would fix this problem.

Is it weird to give an ice cream I made a rating? Yup, but I'm doing it anyway.  I'm giving this 🍦🍦🍦/4 cones.  I think better scones would easily give it a 3.5 rating.