Tonka Bean Ice Cream

Tonka beans combine a several familiar aromas and flavors into something familiar, yet unique—like if cherry, vanilla bean, nutmeg, hay, and tobacco all mixed together into a single flavor. I ought to note tonka beans are illegal in the United States, yet they still manage to worm their way into dessert menus across the country since pastry chefs just can’t shy away from its intoxicating flavor.

What are tonka beans?

Tonka beans are the aromatic, dried seeds of the Dipteryx odorata tree, native to South America. The word tonka originates from the Carib language spoken in what is now French Guiana, where the legume is native.

Tonka beans were imported from South America to France in 1793, where its remained popular in fragrances and desserts since. There’s even an indigenous ritual to grant wishes where you hold a tonka bean in one hand, a snake in the other, and cast the bean into a river. If you’ve tried it please let me know if it works.

Tonka beans were banned by the United States Food and Drug Administration in 1954 due to concerns around the chemical coumarin. Coumarin also happens to be the compound responsible for the warm, hay-like flavor associated with spices like tonka beans, cinnamon, and woodruff. I will note that the FDA uses an incredibly conservative estimate on the safe concentration of coumarin, you’d need to consume the equivalent of 30 tonka beans to pose a health risk to the liver. According to the BBC, cinnamon rolls were nearly banned in Denmark because nearly half those tested were found to contain high levels of coumarin from cassia cinnamon.

How to use tonka beans

If you’re outside of the United States, you’re in luck! I urge you to procure a tonka bean (no, they’re not cheap, on par with vanilla beans) and use it where you’d typically reach for vanilla or cinnamon. I highly recommend grating tonka beans using a microplane grater into super fine flakes to expose maximum surface area for maximum flavor and even infusion. This recipe calls for just half a bean (roughly 0.6-0.8 grams) to flavor an entire liter of ice cream (that’s 1 quart for the Americans). Tonka bean is most soluble with some fat and/or alcohol so I recommend infusing it in hot cream, butter, oil, or adding alongside alcohol in recipes. Grate tonka bean into warm cream to make panna cotta, bloom it in brown butter for extra toasty cookies, or add it to a fruit compote along with a splash of grand marnier.

This recipe pairs tonka beans with a simple dairy base and a couple of egg yolks for custardy flavor and extra richness.