Monday, April 06, 2009

Creamy Chocolate Ice Cream

I got an ice cream maker last summer, but until a few weeks ago I had only tried a few ice cream recipes. Now I'm making up for lost time, making about one batch a week (and sharing most of it!). I thought this ice cream was pretty delicious . . . but some people (not naming names, you know who you are) thought it was "too creamy." Isn't ice cream supposed to be creamy?

Creamy Chocolate Ice Cream
2 cups heavy cream
3 tbsp. Dutch-process cocoa (unsweetened)
5 oz. semisweet chocolate, chopped
1 cup whole milk
3/4 cup sugar
pinch of salt
5 large egg yolks
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

Warm 1 cup of the cream with cocoa powder in a medium saucepan, whisking to blend. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer at a very low boil for 30 seconds, whisking constantly. Remove from heat; add chopped chocolate and stir until smooth. Stir in remaining cream. Pour mixture into a large bowl, scraping the saucepan as thoroughly as possible. Set a mesh strainer on top of the bowl.

Warm the milk, sugar, and salt in the same saucepan. In a separate meduim bowl, whisk together egg yolks. Slowly pour warm milk into egg yolks, whisking constantly (sloooowly - you don't want to cook the eggs with the warm milk!). Scrape warmed egg yolk mixture back into saucepan.

Stir the mixture constantly over medium heat, scraping the bottom as you stir, until the mixture thickens and coats the spatula. Pour the custard through the strainer and stir it into the chocolate mixture until smooth, then stir in vanilla. Stir until cool over an ice bath.

Chill mixture thoroughly in the refrigerator, then freeze in ice cream maker according to mfg. directions. Store in a tightly sealed freezer container.
- Recipe from The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz

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