by Over the past month I gave up ice cream for lent. Then half way through lent, I purchased an ice cream machine. I know, bad idea, but it was extremely cheap and I did not believe that it would too tempting. I tried to keep it in the box until after lent, but it was too tempting and I made a couple sorbets. Not quite ice cream so it gave me enough leeway to use it. Well last Saturday night I started prepping some chocolate ice cream to be made bright and early on Easter Sunday. It was totally delicious.
Creamy and chocolaty, this ice cream is awesome!!
Chocolate Ice Cream – (From Alton Brown)
- 1 1/2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, approximately 1/2 cup
- 3 cups half-and-half
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 8 large egg yolks
- 9 ounces sugar, approximately 1 cup plus 1 tbs
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
Combine the cocoa powder with 1 cup of half-and-half into a medium saucepan over medium heat.  Whisk to combine. When the cocoa is mixed-in add the remaining half-and-half along with the heavy cream. Stir occasionally until the mixture reaches a simmer. Then remove from the heat.
In a medium/large mixing bowl, whisk the egg yolks until they turn a light yellow. Then gradually add the 9 ounces of sugar.
Next slowly temper the egg yolks with the cocoa mixture. Do this by adding a little at a time of the cocoa mixture to the the eggs. Making sure to constantly whisk. Continue until about 1/3rd of the cocoa mixture is added to the eggs.   Then add 1/3rd more while whisking, and then add the remaining mixture.
Return the whole mixture to the saucepan and place over low heat. Add a thermometer to the pan and continue to cook the entire mixture, while whisking, until it reaches 170-175 degree Fahrenheit.
Pour the mixture into a container and let it sit at room temperature for 30 minutes. After the 30 minutes have passed whisk in the vanilla extract. Place the container into the refrigerator and let it cool for at least an hour. When the mixture is cooled, cover and then let the mixture continue to cool for 4-8 hours or until it reaches 40 degrees Fahrenheit.
Pour the mixture into an ice cream machine and continue following the manufacturer’s directions. This should take around 30 minutes. When the ice cream comes out of the machine it has the consistency of soft serve ice cream. I usually transfer it to another lidded container and freeze it for a couple of hours before serving.
When it is time to serve, remove the ice cream from the freezer at least 10 minutes before you want to serve it. That way it will warm up a tad and be easier to scoop.
Serve with a side of birthday cake and you are good to go.
From all the ice cream and sorbet, it'd be easy to forget that you spent the last month and a half buried under 19 feet of snow in DC 😉
Chris, The snow and ice only lasted about two weeks. It was the best of both worlds, we got a couple snow days and then the snow all melted within two weeks.