ROOT Recipe: ROOT and Sassafras Float by Brave Tart Blog
Our friends at Brave Tart blog just turned us on to their amazing recipe for ROOT floats with home-made sassafras ice cream! What makes this recipe unique is that it utilizes both sassafras and ROOT liquor. Having two different “roots” in the recipe makes for a truly unique and intense root beer experience.
You can purchase sassafras at your local Farmers’ Market or health food store. If you find someone selling the essential oil, it is not intended for human consumption, do not use it. This recipe can only be made from organic sassafras bark.
ROOT Ice Cream
12 oz cream
12 oz milk
3, 4” sticks of Sassafras bark
1 vanilla bean, split and scraped
8 egg yolks
5 ounces sugar
5 ounces brown sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 3/4 oz ROOT
the zest of 1 small orange
In a medium pot, bring the milk and cream to a boil together with the sassafras and vanilla bean. When the mixture begins to simmer, shut off the heat and cover with a lid. Steep at least one hour and up to three.
After you’ve finished steeping, whisk the yolks with the sugars and salt in a medium bowl.
Bring the milk/cream mixture back to a simmer. Once the mixture is nice and hot, shut off the heat and remove the sassafras. Use a spatula to scrape off all of the heavily flavored cream that will cling to the sticks of sassfras; likewise scrape out the vanilla cream from inside the vanilla pod.
Now, whisk some of the hot mixture into the egg yolks, a ladle-full at a time, until the egg mixture is quite warm. Then whisk it back into the pot of cream.
Stir over medium heat until the anglaise thickens (“coating the back of a spoon” being the popular description of done-ness). Immediately strain into a large bowl. Stir in the ROOT and orange zest.
Cool in an ice bath, refrigerate for 24 hours, and churn in an ice cream machine according to the manufacturer’s directions and freeze for several hours before serving.
For the Float
1 bottle of micro-brewed root beer for every 2 servings
1 shot of ROOT for every serving
Black tea poached orange slices to garnish
Fill a tall Pilsner with a few scoops of ROOT ice cream, pour a shot of ROOT over it, then top it off with Root Beer. Garnish with black tea poached orange slices if you like and serve with a straw.
More photos coming soon!! Via Brave Tart and Table 310