Homemade Triple Chocolate Ice Cream

Chunky!

I decided to fire up the ice cream maker again this weekend, this time with chocolate. I find most chocolate ice creams underwhelming. They usually taste malty rather than like eating a piece of chocolate. Since this is my first take on chocolate I won’t be doing anything too drastic with the basic recipe. I got the recipe for the base from my friend at work and decided to only change the the type sugar used. I am going with brown sugar rather than white in hopes of adding slightly more complexity. I call this recipe “triple chocolate” because I used three different types of chocolate in it: Ghirardelli chips for the base, Saco chocolate chunks and brownie pieces for the mix-ins.

Ingredients

Makes approximately 1 quart:

• 6 ounces of 60% cacao chocolate (I used Ghirardelli )
• 1 ½ cups of whole milk (I used Lactaid’s lactose free whole milk)
• 1 ½ cups of heavy cream
• 7 large egg yolks
• 1 cup of brown sugar
• ½ teaspoon of salt
• 1 cup of chopped brownies
• ½ cup of chocolate chunks (I used Saco semi-sweet chocolate chunks)

Directions

Cuttin' up some chocolate

It goes with out saying, but you will need an ice cream maker for this.

1. Combine 1 cup of milk and 1 cup of cream in a pot and simmer on medium low heat.
2. Combine the remaining milk and cream (½ and ½) in a bowl and chill. I had both in the refrigerator so they were already cold.
3. Melt the 60% cacao chocolate pieces in a microwave or a pot.
4. Add the melted chocolate to the simmering milk and cream and stir until completely mixed. Keep an eye on the mixture and stir to avoid the mixture forming a hard skin.
5. In a separate bowl, whisk eggs, brown sugar and salt until completely combined and they start to ribbon
6. Temper the egg and sugar mixture with the simmered chocolate mixture by adding a little at a time while simultaneously whisking. This is important because you do not want to scramble your eggs by dumping the entire hot mixture into the eggs and sugar.
7. After you have tempered the egg and sugar mixture with at least half of the hot milk/cream/chocolate, combine both mixtures back into your pot and put on low heat.
8. Continuously stir mixture until it thickens. Again, you want to keep a very close eye on the mixture and keep scraping the bottom and edges to keep your eggs from scrambling. Do not allow mixture to boil. You will know when you are done when you can dip a wooden spoon or spatula into the mixture and run your finger across the spoon with the mixture holding the line you drew. This can take a few tries to get down but error on not overcooking you mixture.
9. Turn off your stove and add the remaining cold milk and cream mixture and stir. Adding the cold milk and cream should stop the cooking process of your custard.
10. Refrigerate the custard for at least 6 hours (or overnight).
11. Pour mixture into your ice cream machine and follow the instructions for your ice cream maker.
12. Add half the brownies and chocolate chunks during the final minutes of churning. Remove your paddle and fold in the rest.

How did it turn out?

Not too shabby

So how did my first batch of chocolate ice cream turn out? Not too shabby! The texture is spot on. This is where all the eggs come into play. It is thick and creamy but still soft and scoop-able. The mix-ins are great and add a good amount of chunkiness. The flavor of the base is solid. My only complaint is that while the base tastes every bit as good as premium chocolate ice cream (and every bit as unhealthy), it doesn’t quite stand out. I hoped the brown sugar would add a little bit of caramel or molasses flavor but I couldn’t really taste either. I think good chocolate ice cream can go one of two ways; really dark and authentic or sweet and milk chocolatey. This base right in the middle. This isn’t a terrible thing. It is solid, but next time I might explore one of the extremes. On the plus side, the lactose free milk seems to do a great job of reducing the effects of lactose intolerance without any loss in texture or flavor. Try out the recipe and tell me what you think.