chocolate ice cream

I was trying to think of what should go with the Peanut Butter Sriracha Cookies for dessert

and decided, rather obviously I suppose, that chocolate ice cream would do the trick. I made this recipe in my Cuisinart countertop ice cream maker.

 3/4 cup sugar 
1 cup milk 
1/4 teaspoon salt 
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
3 egg yolk, lightly beaten 
3 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped 
2 cups heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Combine sugar, milk, salt, and cocoa powder in a saucepan over medium heat, stirring constantly. Bring to a simmer. Place the egg yolks into a small bowl. Gradually stir in about 1/2 cup of the hot liquid to temper the eggs and return all of it to the saucepan. Heat until thickened, but do not boil. Remove from the heat, and stir in the chopped chocolate until chocolate is melted. Pour into a bowl and then place that bowl in a larger bowl with ice and put both in the refrigerator for about two hours until the mixture is cold. Once that has happened, whisk in the cream and vanilla. Pour into an ice cream maker, and freeze according to manufacturer's directions (which will probably include letting the ice cream set in the freezer for a good couple of hours -- this is not a last minute recipe).

We also served it with this Guinness Chocolate Sauce.

I adapted the recipe from here.

Peace,
Milton

lemon buttermilk ice cream

• This is one of the easiest ice cream recipes I have found because you don't have to cook
  

  

  anything. The texture is more like a sorbet. Very flavorful.

  3/4 cups sugar  

  1/2 cup fresh lemon juice 

  1 cup heavy cream 

  1 cup whole milk 

  1 cup buttermilk

  Combine sugar and juice in a large bowl, stirring with a whisk until sugar dissolves. Add half-and-half, whole milk, and buttermilk. Pour mixture into the freezer can of an ice-cream freezer; freeze according to manufacturer's instructions. Spoon ice cream into a freezer-safe container. Cover and freeze 1 hour or until firm.
  
  
  I adapted this recipe to fit my Cuisinart counter top ice cream maker and served them with these cookies.
  
  
  Peace,
  Milton

ice cream variations

One of my favorite food books of the past year is Michael Ruhlman’s Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking in which he talks about the basic ratios that make cooking possible. His basic ice cream recipe is as follows (this does well in one of the countertop ice cream makers):

1 1/2 cups milk
1 1/2 cups cream
1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise
3/4 cup sugar
6 ounces egg yolks (9-10 large egg yolks)

I have made ice cream twice over the last couple of weeks. Once was a curry ice cream to go with these cookies; the other was a Limoncello ice cream to go with an almond pound cake baked by my friend Laura (I don’t yet have that recipe). My point is, with this base, you can make most any flavor you like with a little help from your friendly web browser.

For the curry ice cream, I replaced the milk with coconut milk

(one can is right at 1 1/2 cups) and added 1 1/2 tablespoons of Madras curry powder.

For the Limoncello ice cream, I used the base recipe and added 2 tablespoons of lemon extract and a half a cup of Limoncello.

(I might also add Ruhlman adds 2-4 tablespoons of Maker’s Mark Bourbon to his vanilla recipe.)

The actual making of the ice cream is as follows:

Heat the cream and milk in a double boiler, or in a saucepan over medium heat, until the milk is to a simmering stage. Don’t bring it to a boil. Whisk the eggs and sugar (and curry powder or lemon extract and Limoncello) until the sugar is dissolved. Ladle about a half a cup of the hot milk into the egg mixture very slowly, whisking the whole time. This is called tempering the mixture. You are trying to raise the temperature of the eggs without cooking them. Repeat until you have added at least two cups of the milk to the eggs and then pour the mixture slowly back into the double boiler and cook the mixture until it thickens like a custard, which will take about six or seven minutes. This should require your complete attention.

When the mixture is ready, Pour it into a clean and cold bowl and then set that bowl in an ice bath to let it cool. After about 10-15 minutes, Put the bowl in the fridge and let it sit for at least two hours. It can sit overnight, if you like. If you do so, cover the top with a piece of plastic wrap so it doesn’t develop a skin.

Pour the chilled mixture into the ice cream maker and let it run for 25-30 minutes. The longer you leave it, the harder the ice cream will become. Transfer the ice cream to a container and put in the freezer for at least two hours before serving.

This one takes some work, but it sure is good.

Peace,

Milton

white chocolate ice cream

1 cup white chocolate powder
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
1 1/2 cups half and half
3/4 cup sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
6 oz. egg yolks (9-10 large yolks)

Heat the white chocolate powder, sugar, cream, and half and half in a double boiler. Whisk the egg yolks in a separate bowl and then temper them by adding a ladle of the cream mixture at a time and mixing into the eggs until at least half of the cream mixture is incorporated. This will warm up the eggs without cooking them. Then add the new egg mixture back into the remaining cream and cook over moderate heat until the mixture thickens to almost a pudding consistency. Pour into a bowl and put the bowl in an ice bath and stir until cool. Chill in the refrigerator for a couple of hours, until mixture is very cold and then follow your ice cream maker's directions to finish the job.

Peace,
Milton