Chocolate Ice Cream

 A little while ago I was over at my cousin’s house, enjoying a dinner of homemade chili fries and wine, and discussing various important subjects when the topic of ice cream came up.  Her boyfriend mentioned that one of the greatest things about being an adult was that he could now eat ice cream for dinner.  I think there was a Seinfeld episode about that too…  Anyways, I felt like we bonded over our mutual love of ice cream so a little while later when I was making chocolate ice cream for my Dad, (it’s his favourite flavour) I couldn’t help but think of my cousin’s boyfriend and how much he would like it too.  I later recounted this to my cousin but as I said it out loud I realized it sounded pretty creepy to tell her I have thoughts of her boyfriend.  I assured her they were strictly on an ice cream loving level and that there was no cause for concern.




If you want to impress an ice cream lover in your life or if you simply have a love of ice cream yourself, you should make this chocolate ice cream.  The recipe comes from David Lebovitz’s, The Perfect Scoop and that’s all you really need to know to understand that it will be amazing.

 Chocolate Ice Cream, (From David Lebovitz's The Perfect Scoop)
2 cups heavy cream
3 tablespoons unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
5 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped
1 cup whole milk
¾ cup granulated sugar
Pinch of salt
5 large egg yolks
½ teaspoon vanilla extract

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

Warm the milk, sugar, and salt in the same saucepan. In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the egg yolk. Slowly pour the warm milk into the egg yolks, whisking constantly, then scrape the warmed egg yolks back into the saucepan.

Stir the mixture constantly over the medium heat with a heatproof spatula, scraping the bottom as you stir, until the mixture thickens and coats the spatula (170°F on an instant-read thermometer). Pour the custard through the strainer and stir it into the chocolate mixture until smooth, then stir in the vanilla. Stir until cool over an ice bath.

Chill the mixture thoroughly in the refrigerator, then freeze it in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions. (If the cold mixture is too thick to pour into your machine, whisk it vigorously to thin it out.)