Chocolate Chocolate Chocolate Ice Cream

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scratched ice cream
Mmm! Ice cream!

Hmm, are you wondering what will be the main ingredient in this batch of ice cream? Nah, we thought not.

As we’d remarked when we made a batch of Grapefruit Sorbet, we got an ice cream maker for Christmas so that we can make all kinds of yummy frozen treats, including, yep, ice cream. We have a real fondness for ice cream, by which we mean good ice cream (we still reminisce about our favorite ice cream stand in New England, and we haven’t lived there for nearly 17 years; ah, that Kimball Farms ice cream was the best, and they had a hose, a hose, as big as a garden hose that hung from the ceiling that dispensed whipped cream. For a dime. See what we mean?).Anyway, let’s see about this Chocolate Chocolate Chocolate Ice Cream. The recipe comes from the little book provided with the Kitchen Aid ice cream attachment, but was really called Triple Chocolate Ice cream. It seemed like a good foray into the world of making ice cream, although the instructions were a bit confusing and seemed as if they might result in a sink full of dirty dishes; we modified and clarified, below.

Chocolate Chocolate Chocolate Ice Cream

Servings: 2 quarts
Author: Shawn

Ingredients

  • 2 ounces unsweetened baking chocolate chopped
  • 2 ounces dark chocolate chopped
  • 1/2 cup heavy cream
  • 2 cups half-and-half
  • 8 egg yolks
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1/3 cup cocoa (30 g)
  • 1 1/2 cups heavy cream
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 4 tsp vanilla extract
  • 4-6 ounces dark chocolate chopped

Instructions

  • Place the 2 ounces of baking chocolate and the 2 ounces of dark chocolate in a large saucepan. Add 1/2 cup heavy cream and 2 cups half-and-half. Place over medium heat, and, stirring continuously, bring to a simmer and melt the chocolate.
  • Whisk together sugar and cocoa in a small bowl.
  • In the bowl of a stand mixed fitter with the whisk attachment, beat the egg yolks on low. Slowly add the sugar-cocoa mix and continue beating until well-blended, about 30 seconds.
  • With the mixer still on low, slowly add the hot cream and chocolate mixture. Beat until well mixed, then transfer back to the saucepan.
  • Heat mixture over medium heat until mixture thickens, small bubbles form near the edge, and everything is steamy.
  • Remove from heat and stir in the 1 1/2 cups heavy cream, salt, and vanilla. Transfer to a bowl, cover, and chill for at least 8 hours.
  • Assemble ice cream maker and churn for 10 to 15 minutes, adding chopped dark chocolate during the last 1 to 2 minutes.
  • Serve, and transfer remaining ice cream to an airtight container and freeze.

Ingredient discussion:

We’ll fess up. We didn’t use free-range eggs this time. We wanted to, we really did, but events conspired against us. First, the CSA where we get the eggs is closed for the holidays, then we ran out of eggs. We were going to be strong and wait until the CSA reopened, but we couldn’t. Good thing it wasn’t one of our New Year’s resolutions. But we did use really good chocolate, Callibaut 70% cacao. We use a lot of chocolate over the year, but an 11-pound bar is only about $70 online; that’s less than $7 a pound. How can you not buy it?

Procedure in detail:

separated eggs
There’s our eight egg yolks. Note that we have two containers for the whites — secret plans!

Separate eggs. Now, I know what you’re thinking, eight egg yolks? Seriously, what am I going to do with the eight egg whites? After all, most, if not all, eggs have both a yolk and a white. Never fear, we’ll show you, in Thursday’s post. (Hint: think about what’s often served with ice cream.) For now, separate the eggs, placing the yolks into the bowl of your stand mixer. Note that we placed 5 whites in one of the containers, and 3 in the other. That’s for Thursday’s post.

Looks kind of like hot chocolate. Instead, we'll turn it into cold chocolate!
Looks kind of like hot chocolate. Instead, we’ll turn it into cold chocolate!

Melt chocolate. In a large saucepan (about 3- quart), over medium heat, combine 1/2 cup cream, 2 cups half-and-half, the baking chocolate, and 2 ounces of dark chocolate. Stirring constantly, bring the mixture to the barest simmer so the chocolate melts and everything is steamy. We brought ours to 180°F.

cocoa sugar
Mmm. That looks good. Perhaps on a piece of buttered toast?

Make cocoa sugar. In a small bowl, or large measuring cup, whisk together the sugar and cocoa. For cocoa, we used Valrhona brand, which is a Dutch-processed (read: less bitter) cocoa that’s extremely dark.

adding sugar and cocoa
Slowly add the sugar cocoa mixture to the egg yolks. Beat on low for about 30 seconds to blend.

Beat yolks and sugar. Place the mixer bowl (containing the yolks) on the mixer fitted with the whisk attachment and beat on low for about 30 seconds. Slowly add the cocoa-sugar mixture and continue beating, on low, until well-blended and slightly thickened.

tempering yolks
The moment of truth — tempering the yolks — add the hot mixture very slowly at first, a bit faster later, so the yolks don’t cook.

Add hot cream. With the mixer still on low, slowly, very slowly at first, add the hot cream and chocolate mixture. Add too fast, and you might have scrambled egg yolks. Not the best for ice cream — off-putting, even. Once all the hot liquid is added, mix until well blended.

making custard
Heat the mixture until thickened and steamy, but don’t let it boil.

Cook custard. Transfer the mixture back to the saucepan and heat over medium heat, stirring continuously, until the mixture — custard, really — thickens, bubbles form around the edge, and everything is steamy. Again, we cooked it to about 180°F.

finishing ice cream mix
Once the custard is cooked, stir in the remaining cream, vanilla, and salt.

Stir in cream and more. Remove from the heat, and stir in the 1 1/2 cups of heavy cream, the salt, and the vanilla.

ice cream custard
Waiting for churning. Can we wait the 8 (eight!) hours? Yes, we planned on churning tomorrow.

Chill. Transfer to a bowl, cover, and refrigerate to chill for at least 8 hours so it’ll freeze faster when churning.

churning ice cream
It’s a bit difficult to pour the custard into our ice cream freezer, but we managed.

Churn. Set up your ice cream maker, add the custard, and churn until frozen like a soft serve ice cream, about 10 to 15 minutes.

adding chocolate pieces
Our ice cream churned to completion faster than we expected. We had to mix in the chocolate pieces by hand. We managed.

Add mix-ins. During the last minute or two of churning, add the remaining dark chocolate. Our churning stopped before we expected it, so we just mixed in the chocolate pieces with a rubber spatula. You do what you have to do.

scratched ice cream
Mmm! Ice cream! In fact, great ice cream, and you can make it yourself, too. And on Thursday, learn how to make a cake to go with it.

Serve. Spoon some into bowls, then pack the remaining ice cream in an airtight container and freeze for another day.

This is really, really, creamy ice cream with a very chocolatey taste. It’s probably the creamiest ice cream we’ve had in a really long time, and that includes when we get ice cream at places in town that make their own ice cream. The chocolate flavor: it’s not that sweet, chocolate taste of things like milk chocolate, but that rich, dark, bittersweet chocolate flavor, the flavor that true chocoholics crave. This is definitely a five-star ice cream. We think that the only thing that we’d change for future batches would be to make a smaller amount, probably half a batch, for ease of handling.

Worth the trouble?

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