AMAZING Black Sesame Ice Cream No Churn!

Black Sesame ice cream is one of the most delicious, nutty and aromatic ice cream flavours! Learn how to make the most delicious black sesame ice cream using an easy no churn method. This is intensely flavoured with black sesame and super easy! And there's no need to buy any special ingredients like Kuki (black sesame paste). This is a pushy recipe Dear Reader (and Thermomix users, it's a cinch made in your Thermie)!

What is Kuki? Kuki is already milled black sesame paste. It is also quite expensive while black sesame seeds are relatively cheap and since you'll need a lot of it to get that delicious, aromatic black sesame flavour I would advise making it. It is very easy to make black sesame paste. All you need is a food processor or Thermomix. You can also do it in a mortar and pestle but I would advise against this as it will take a very long time to pound that many seeds.

Whole black sesame seeds or already milled black sesame seeds? I bought some of both and tried them both. Both bags of sesame seeds were already roasted but I re-roasted them briefly to bring out the aroma. I found that whole black sesame seeds imparted a stronger flavour once they were ground down so I would use those over already ground up black sesame seeds.

Honey vs sugar syrup: You can use honey or you can use sugar syrup to make the black sesame paste.

Is black sesame paste the same as black tahini? Kuki is more flavoursome as the sesame seeds are roasted. I would not use black tahini in this recipe as I'm afraid that you may be a bit disappointed by the flavour.

What else can you do with black sesame paste? This sweet paste can be used in place of peanut butter or nut butters. The most obvious uses are to spread it on toast or drizzle it over waffles. It is also a tasty ingredient for smoothies, cakes and cookies. Black sesame seeds are a good source of fibre, plant protein and are said to be good for lowering cholesterol, blood pressure, inflammation and are said to be good for boosting bone health. Plus they're also delicious!

Charcoal Powder: edible charcoal powder is found at health food stores. Here we use it just to give the ice cream a darker colour. It doesn't really affect the flavour of the ice cream at all and if you can't find it, you can omit it and your ice cream will just be a grey colour with black speckles.

I adore a strong black sesame flavour in my ice cream but you can adjust the amount of black sesame paste. Personally I would add the whole lot but taste it and see as you go. Some recipes suggest just a few tablespoons full of the sesame paste but to me, it barely tasted like black sesame. Taste it to make sure that you get the right strength of flavour.

This black sesame ice cream recipe is a reader request from Dear Reader Naz B. She emailed me asking me to create her a recipe Black Sesame ice cream because it is her favourite flavour in the world and it sells out quickly. I have a particular love for rich dark black sesame flavours so it was no hardship for me to develop a recipe for one of my favourite flavours.

Speaking of favourites, I mentioned yesterday about how I spent my Valentine's Day. Mr NQN went windfoiling while Laura and I went on a Galentine's day adventure. And while my Valentine's Day was fairly uneventful, his wasn't.

I received a message from him as we were driving home. He was on his way to the emergency department at the hospital. But being a man of very few words, he just fed me lines in response to my many questions.

"Very windy and a bit too gutsy. I hurt my ribs."

"Might go get them checked out when you get home."

"Just saw triage nurse and will get xray".

For every 3 questions I asked I got 1 back. And he was literally just sitting in the emergency department waiting!

It turns out that he had fallen down on his windfoil and now has some very bruised ribs. So it was a quite painful Valentine's Day for him. If only he had just gone to lunch!

So tell me Dear Reader, do you like black sesame ice cream? What did you do on Valentine's Day? And do you have any reader requests for recipes that you would passionately like?

Black Sesame Ice Cream

An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott

Preparation time: 15 minutes plus freezing time

Cooking time: 5 minutes

For Black Sesame Paste

• 150g/5ozs/1 cup black sesame seeds
• 2 tablespoons honey or sugar
• 1-2 tablespoons water

For Ice Cream

• 300ml/10.6flozs. cream
• 300ml/10.6flozs. sweetened condensed milk, chilled
• 3 teaspoons charcoal powder

Step 1 - Toast the black sesame seeds in a frypan until they become fragrant. If your sesame seeds are already roasted just toast them for a minute or two.

Step 2 - Place them in a food processor and process with honey or sugar until it starts to become a paste. Add a tablespoon or two of water if it needs it. While the paste will have some grain to it you want it as smooth as possible. Cool completely.

Thermomix directions: Place the sesame seeds in the bowl and toast for 5 minutes, Varoma and speed stir. Add the honey or sugar and place on 20 seconds speed #8. Add water if needed to form a paste. Cool completely.

Step 3 - Whip the cream until soft peaks form. Add the condensed milk, black sesame paste and charcoal powder and whisk until combined. Please note: this is an intensely flavoured black sesame ice cream so if for some reason you don't like it strong in black sesame use less to taste. Adding the full quantity of sesame paste will also make the ice cream slightly grainy in texture. Pour into a freezer proof container and freeze until set.

Thermomix directions: Insert butterfly attachment into the bowl and cream and set to 20 seconds speed #3.5. Add the condensed milk, black sesame paste and charcoal powder and set to 15 seconds #5 and whisk until combined. Please note: this is an intensely flavoured black sesame ice cream so if for some reason you don't like it strong in black sesame use less to taste. Adding the full quantity of sesame paste will also make the ice cream slightly grainy in texture. Pour into a freezer proof container and freeze until set.