Chocolate Ice Cream

Today I'm getting in a batch of chocolate ice cream. Ice cream is always great, but home made is 1000 times better than what you buy in the store. MUCH less sugar and no chemicals. Instead of chemicals you use egg yolks to help thicken you ice cream. SO you end up with a dessert that you KNOW exactly what is in it and feel much better about eating it. I still haven't figured out how to do it calorie free, but you can't have everything.

I started making ice cream a few years ago. I bought one of those $25 ice cream machines where you have to put the bowl in the freezer for at least 24 hours ahead and you have to let your custard cool over night. The problem with that system is the bowl is getting cooler the entire time you are making your ice cream. so it may start at minus -17C, but after 45 minutes of churning the custard it just isn't cold enough. I was getting taste that I liked but the consistency was all wrong. So I made the big investment of buying an ice cream machine with a built in refrigeration compressor. Now I make ice cream all in one go. I can take the hot custard and put it straight into the machine and an hour later I have ice cream.

  

Ingredients

• 4 oz 60% baking chocolate
• 1/4 cup boiling water
• 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2-cup sugar
• 3 dl milk
• 5 dl cups cream(40%)
• Pinch of salt
• 3 egg yolks, whisked
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

 1 Melt chocolate in a double boiler (you can use a makeshift double boiler by placing a metal bowl over a small saucepan of boiling water, just don’t let the bottom of the bowl touch the water). When melted, transfer to a medium-sized, heavy-bottomed saucepan, turn heat to medium low and add the boiling water, cocoa powder and half of the sugar. Whisk vigorously until there are no lumps. Remove from heat.

2 Add the milk, 2/3 of the cream and 1 dl of milk remaining sugar and the salt to the chocolate base, and whisk vigorously until fully incorporated, then use a rubber spatula to scrape the bottom and sides of the pan. When the chocolate base is smooth, turn heat to medium high, stirring occasionally, wait until the base starts to steam. Whisk the egg yolks in a medium sized bowl. Once the chocolate base has heated to point of being steamy, temper the eggs by slowly pouring some of the hot base into the eggs while whisking the eggs vigorously to prevent them from cooking. Once you've incorporated about half of the base with the eggs, pour the egg mixture back into the pan with the rest of the chocolate base and stir to combine.

3 Turn heat to medium, and heat the base until it reaches 76°C. At this point the base will have thickened slightly and will just be getting steamy again. Remove from heat. Stir in the remaining cold cream and the rest of the milk to prevent further cooking. Stir in the vanilla.

4 Chill ice cream base for several hours, preferably overnight, until completely chilled. If you are using a freezer bucket ice cream machine. Churn in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s directions. If you like soft ice cream, eat immediately. Otherwise put it in the freezer for a couple hours to firm up. Note that the ice cream may be quite hard when you first take it out of the freezer, so you may want to let it sit for a few minutes to soften before trying to scoop.

original recipe

Finally thick enough at -17C

 Ready for the Freezer