Two scoops of smooth grey-brown licorice ice cream in a dark stoneware bowl, scattered with large flakes of sea salt, a spoon resting beside it

Salted Licorice Ice Cream, and How Much Licorice Is Enough

Published 16 min read

Filed under Licorice Finland

In Finland, licorice ice cream is ordinary enough to serve as a yardstick. In January 2016 the National Institute for Health and Welfare put licorice on its not-recommended list for pregnant women. Its example of an occasional amount that was not dangerous was a portion of licorice ice cream. The scoop itself is a quiet grey-brown. Salt reaches the tongue first, and the licorice's sweetness is still there after the spoon is back on the plate.

This version seasons a stirred custard with pure licorice extract and plain sea salt. Ammonium chloride, the salt that gives Nordic salmiak its sting, is optional. Salt changes how ice cream freezes as well as how it tastes, and glycyrrhizin, the sweet compound in licorice root, sets a ceiling on how much licorice a quart should hold. The amounts below respect both.

Why pure extract

Licorice extract is about as close to the plant as a cook can get without boiling roots. The Swedish Food Agency's risk assessment describes how it is made. The raw material comes from runners up to nine meters long that the plant sends out sideways from its main root. They are crushed, boiled in water, strained, and evaporated to a syrup that sets into coal-black blocks and sticks. American food regulations define the extract the same way, as the part of the root drawn out by boiling water, and note that it is sold as a liquid, as a paste or "block," or as a spray-dried powder. Lakrids by Bülow describes its raw licorice powder as that hard lump of evaporated extract, granulated coarse or fine. Any of these forms will do here, weighed on a scale rather than spooned. The extract began life as a water decoction, so it will dissolve back into hot milk, given fine grinding and patient stirring.

Licorice candy starts from the same extract, cooked with sugar and flour or starch into a paste, as the licorice guide explains. That paste is made for chewing. Keep the candy for the table and put the extract in the pan.

Extract also brings its own sweetness, which changes how to taste the base. Published figures for glycyrrhizin's sweetness vary widely. Sigma-Aldrich lists its ammonium salt at 50 times sucrose, and the Swedish agency gives 50 to 200 times for the free acid and its salts. The agency's description of the taste is more use in a kitchen: sharp and lingering. Because the sweetness lingers, a spoonful of base judged the instant it lands tells only part of the story. Taste, count to ten, then decide.

The same report counts more than 80 volatile compounds in the root's small fraction of aromatic oils, anethole among them. Anethole is also the scent of anise and fennel.

How much licorice is enough

Glycyrrhizin is the one ingredient in this recipe with a dosage question. The European Union's Scientific Committee on Food concluded in 2003 that regular intake up to 100 mg a day protects most people. Above that it may raise blood pressure, and people whose fluid and electrolyte balance is already disturbed may need a lower ceiling. The Swedish Food Agency puts the same number in candy terms: about 50 grams a day of licorice containing 0.2 percent glycyrrhizic acid.

Pure extract is far stronger than candy. The Swedish review cites Dutch analyses of block licorice, the raw material for candy, at 27 to 115 mg of glycyrrhizic acid per gram, with the caveat that the studies are few. Run through that range, which covers block licorice rather than every extract on the market, one scoop from a six-serving batch carries:

Extract per batch Flavor Glycyrrhizin per serving (of 6)
4 g Gentle; licorice as a background note About 18 to 77 mg
6 g (this recipe) Clear licorice, balanced by the salt About 27 to 115 mg
8 g Strong and dark About 36 to 153 mg

For comparison, the same Swedish report cites the European flavor industry's estimate of the highest levels of glycyrrhizic acid used as a flavoring in dairy products and ice cream: 375 mg per kilo. This batch weighs close to a kilo, so six grams of extract puts it somewhere between a little under half that high-end commercial figure and nearly twice it. Depending on the extract, a homemade batch can carry more glycyrrhizin than a commercially flavored one.

At six grams, a scoop lands somewhere between a quarter of the daily reference and a little over it, depending on the extract. An occasional bowl after dinner is the kind of portion Finland's guidance calls not dangerous, and the 100 mg reference is set for regular, daily eating. Finishing the tub alone over a couple of days could put one person well past the daily reference if the extract is a strong one.

The NIH's National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health links even small amounts of glycyrrhizin to serious effects in people with high blood pressure or heart or kidney conditions, and in people who eat a lot of salt. The Swedish agency lists pregnant women among possible sensitive groups, and Finland's guidance still places licorice on its not-recommended list in pregnancy. Guests in any of those groups, or on regular medication, should check with their doctor.

Salt, in two places

Sodium does more to licorice than make it salty. In a 1997 paper in Nature, Paul Breslin and Gary Beauchamp showed that sodium salts suppress bitterness more than they suppress sweetness, so once the bitterness is pushed back, the sweet taste comes forward. Sea salt should do the same to whatever bitterness is present and let the root's sweetness through, which may be part of why salted licorice tastes rounder than plain.

Salt also changes the freeze. Douglas Goff, the University of Guelph dairy scientist, treats freezing point depression as a colligative property: it depends on the number of dissolved particles, so small molecules do more work per gram. Table salt is a small molecule that splits into two ions in water, and gram for gram it puts roughly ten times as many particles into the base as sucrose does. By that arithmetic the 3 g of salt here lowers the freezing point about as much as another 30 g of sugar would. The scoop comes out a little softer than an unsalted custard.

So the base stops at 3 g, and the rest of the salt goes on top, where flakes give sharp bursts of salinity without touching the set. A flaky finishing salt is the one to use here: Saltverk Flaky Sea Salt (shop Saltverk Flaky Sea Salt) from Iceland, whose geothermal saltworks is described in the Saltverk producer guide, or Maldon (shop Maldon Sea Salt).

Ammonium chloride is what makes Nordic salmiak taste like salmiak, and its saltiness works differently. Emily Liman's lab at the University of Southern California reported in Nature Communications in 2023 that ammonium chloride activates OTOP1, the proton channel in the taste cells that detect sour, producing currents comparable to those from a mildly acidic stimulus at pH 5.5. The prickly, almost sour edge of a salmiak drop is a signal from the sour-taste system. In the United States ammonium chloride is affirmed as generally recognized as safe, including as a flavor enhancer, under 21 CFR 184.1138, which requires it to meet the Food Chemicals Codex specification. Buy it labeled food-grade or as salmiak powder for baking. Sal ammoniac sold in blocks for cleaning soldering irons is not sold as food grade. It goes into the cooled base, not the hot pan, so the dose can be tasted as it goes in. Like table salt, it lowers the freezing point, one more reason to keep the dose small.

Ingredients

For about 1 quart (1 liter), six servings.

  • 6 g pure licorice extract, as hard pellets, block, or raw licorice powder (about 1 1/2 teaspoons of small pellets). Use 4 g for a gentle flavor, 8 g for a strong one.
  • 360 ml (1 1/2 cups) heavy cream
  • 360 ml (1 1/2 cups) whole milk
  • 5 large egg yolks, about 90 g
  • 100 g (1/2 cup) granulated sugar, divided in half
  • 30 g (2 1/2 tablespoons packed) dark brown sugar, whose molasses note suits the licorice
  • 3 g (1/2 teaspoon) fine sea salt
  • 0.5 to 1 g food-grade ammonium chloride (salmiak powder), optional
  • Flaky sea salt, to finish

Equipment: an ice cream machine, a heavy saucepan, a heatproof spatula, an instant-read thermometer, a fine sieve, a mortar and pestle if you have one, and a bowl of ice water. For the ammonium chloride, a scale that reads in tenths of a gram is worth borrowing. Without one, add the smallest pinch, taste, and creep up.

Method

1. Set up before any heat

Freeze the machine's bowl according to its manual; a bowl that is only nearly frozen churns a soft, icy batch. Set a medium bowl inside a larger one filled with ice and water, and rest a fine sieve on top. Check the thermometer in boiling water, since step 5 depends on it. The Denver note below explains what it should read.

2. Grind the licorice

Pellets and block extract are hard and glassy, and whole pieces dissolve slowly and unevenly. Pound them in a mortar to a coarse, gritty powder, or chop as finely as you can with a heavy knife; the extract shatters rather than slices. The smaller the pieces, the less chance of a dark, concentrated fleck in the finished scoop. Raw licorice powder can go straight into the pan.

3. Dissolve it in the warm dairy

Put the cream, milk, brown sugar, half the granulated sugar, the fine salt and the licorice into the saucepan over medium heat. Stir often and scrape the bottom with the spatula, where undissolved extract settles and can scorch. Over five to eight minutes the dairy turns a soft grey-brown and begins to steam. Before moving on, drag the spatula across the bottom and look. There should be no dark grains left; if there are, keep stirring below a simmer. Do not let it boil.

4. Temper the yolks

While the dairy heats, whisk the yolks with the rest of the granulated sugar for about a minute, until they are paler and fall from the whisk in a ribbon. Ladle in about a third of the hot dairy slowly, whisking all the while, then pour the yolk mixture back into the saucepan.

5. Cook the custard

Texture is decided here. Over medium-low heat, stir constantly, sweeping the bottom and corners where custard sets first. Within five to eight minutes the foam disappears and the liquid turns silky and slightly heavier. Take it to 175 to 180°F (79 to 82°C), when a finger drawn across the coated spatula leaves a clean line that holds. Much past 180°F, the yolks tighten into small curds, so watch closely from 170°F. On the way up the custard passes 160°F, the temperature the FDA gives for a cooked egg base in homemade ice cream.

6. Strain and cool it fast

Pour the custard straight through the sieve into the bowl over ice; anything left in the hot pan keeps cooking. The sieve catches threads of cooked egg and any last grains of licorice. Stir for three or four minutes, until the custard stops steaming.

7. Add the salmiak, if using

Dissolve 0.5 g of ammonium chloride in a teaspoon of the cooled custard, then stir it into the bowl. Taste, and give the lingering licorice sweetness a few seconds. The sting should register toward the back of the tongue, a sharp, slightly sour salinity under the sweetness. For a stronger one, add up to another 0.5 g the same way. Skip the step entirely for sea-salt licorice ice cream, which stands on its own.

8. Chill thoroughly, then taste again

Press plastic wrap onto the surface and refrigerate at least 4 hours; overnight is better. Goff calls this rest ageing, and in commercial production it gives the fat time to crystallize and the proteins time to hydrate. The base should be 40°F (4°C) or colder before it goes into the machine. Taste it cold: warm food tastes sweeter than cold, and this is the closest you will get to the frozen flavor. If the licorice seems faint, dissolve a little more extract in two tablespoons of hot milk and stir it in.

9. Churn to soft-serve

Churn according to the manufacturer's instructions, usually 20 to 30 minutes, until the ice cream mounds on the dasher like soft-serve. Stop there. Churned too long, the fat begins to turn to butter, the way over-whipped cream does. Because of the salt, this base may take a few minutes longer than an unsalted custard to firm up.

10. Harden and finish

Scrape the ice cream into a container chilled in the freezer, press parchment onto the surface, and freeze at least 4 hours. Leave it on the counter 5 to 10 minutes before scooping. Scatter a few flakes of sea salt over each serving just before it goes to the table, so they stay crisp.

In Denver

None of the targets move at altitude. A mile up, water boils at about 202°F, as the Denver altitude cooking guide sets out, and the steaming dairy in step 3 and the custard in step 5 both stay well below that. The altitude is handy for checking the thermometer, though. In boiling water in Denver, an accurate instant-read shows about 202°F. One that reads 212°F there is ten degrees high, and it would call the custard done before it had thickened.

When it goes wrong

Symptom Likely cause Fix or prevention
Dark specks with a concentrated licorice hit Licorice not fully dissolved Grind finer, stir longer in step 3, and strain; an immersion blender run through the warm base helps
Licorice too strong overall More extract than this base can balance Next batch, drop to 4 g
Sharp, sour sting that swamps the licorice Too much ammonium chloride Start at 0.5 g and add in small steps; it cannot come back out
Faint licorice once frozen Judged warm, or judged too quickly Taste the cold base and wait a few seconds; move toward 8 g if needed
Too soft to scoop cleanly Extra salt in the base, or a warm freezer Keep the base at 3 g of salt with the rest on top as flakes; store at the back of the freezer
Grainy, with tiny curds Custard went well past 180°F Strain and blend while warm; next time pull at 180°F
Icy texture Warm base, bowl not fully frozen, or thawed and refrozen Chill overnight, freeze the bowl completely, and return the tub to the freezer promptly

Homemade ice cream is best within a few days. Goff notes that ice crystals keep growing at home-freezer temperatures, and every partial thaw and refreeze speeds them up. With the glycyrrhizin in mind, a few days is also about the right pace for six people and a quart.

Serving it

Salted licorice ice cream likes something bright beside it. Fresh passion fruit spooned over the top is a good match, and Lakrids by Bülow builds one of its lettered licorices on the same pairing. The Lakrids by Bülow producer guide tells how the company began in a kitchen on Bornholm, and a few pieces of its B Passion Fruit licorice (shop Lakrids B Passion Fruit) on the side make the connection plain. For crunch, crush a few Anis de Flavigny licorice pastilles (shop Anis de Flavigny Licorice) and scatter them over at the last moment; the Anis de Flavigny producer guide explains the aniseed at the center of each one. Shop the licorice collection for more to set out alongside. The same custard method, with the delicate ingredient added off the heat, turns up in the green tea ice cream recipe.

The shop is at 263 Josephine Street in Cherry Creek, Denver, and products ship across the continental U.S. from theambrosianpantry.com.

A few things worth knowing at the table

Sal ammoniac is named after an Egyptian oracle. Sal ammoniac, the old name for ammonium chloride, means salt of Ammon. The 1860 Encyclopaedia Britannica tells of a crystalline salt dug near the oracle of Ammon at the Siwa oasis, fit to present to kings and used in Egyptian sacrifices, from which sal ammoniac "has taken its name." Etymologists pass along a less romantic version: salts said to have been prepared from the sands where camels waited while their owners consulted the oracle. Either way the trail leads to the temple of the god the Greeks called Ammon and the Egyptians Amun. Ammonia was later named from sal ammoniac, so the chemical in a salmiak drop and the one in a bottle of household cleaner both take their names from an Egyptian god.

It may owe its start to the pharmacy counter. Ammonium chloride has long been used as an expectorant, and PubChem, the U.S. National Library of Medicine's chemical database, still classes it as one. Salmiak also served to mask the taste of cough medicine, and Jukka Annala, author of a Finnish book on salmiakki, describes pharmacies gradually making salmiak pastilles of their own, rolled in small paper tubes and sold in enormous quantities. He suggests those decades of pharmacy sales could at least partly explain why the flavor took root in Finland. As candy, salt licorice has been popular since at least the early twentieth century, according to the USC researchers who studied its taste. Annala's pharmacy story is an informed account of a plausible route from medicinal salt to national sweet, not a documented first recipe.

The sting really is partly sour. The USC team's work also hints at why a sour receptor would respond to ammonium chloride at all: ammonium is mildly toxic, and an animal that can taste it has reason to be wary.

Licorice means sweet root, twice over. The Greek glykyrrhiza joins glykys, sweet, and rhiza, root. By the Online Etymology Dictionary's account, Latin reshaped it into liquiritia under the pull of liquere, to become liquid, and English licorice descends from there. Swedish kept the plain meaning in another of the plant's names, sötrot, sweet root.

Sources & Further Reading

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