Best Ever Chocolate Ice Cream

Its been a good week for food! Well its always a good week for food... I like to eat, and I eat nice things. Maybe thats why the kgs have been creeping on... but thats a whole seperate blog!


Anyway...


A while ago I spotted a bargain on Facebook, via Kitchenware Direct, for an ice cream maker - $50, free postage! SOLD to the lady who needs no more gadgets in the kitchen but who buys them anyway!


Its a Cuisinart 1.5L, and of course its RED! I love red things in my kitchen... So I thought I'd give it a test run, upon the request of my bf who wanted something sweet for after dinner... So I went for Nigella Lawsons "Best Ever Chocolate Ice Cream" recipe.

The recipe is below, however we changed the recipe slightly... We added the zest of an orange when the chocolate was nice and hot, to make sure all the warmth of the orange soaked in and blended with the chocolate, which it most certainly did! We also found that while making the ice cream... we had no cocoa *facepalm*.


Instead we used 4 heaped teaspoons of rich spanish hot chocolate mix, which has added to the decadence of the end result. I think should we use cocoa next time it wont be quite so full on. However if youre a chocolate lover - I suggest you try it with hot chocolate mixture! Happy Valley Cook, who is also a member of a website I use often, Through the Oven Door has also made this ice cream and pointed me in its direction - all credit goes to her, as otherwise I wouldnt have discovered it! She has a review on her blog about it so go have a look.


Anyway, the recipe is as follows




Ingredients

• 4 egg yolks
• 130g plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 500 ml full-fat milk
• 100g dark chocolate (min.70% cocoa solids)
• 40 g cocoa (best quality available)

Method:

• Whisk the yolks & 130 gr of the sugar in a bowl until thick & creamy, foaming pale ribbons when you lift the whisk
• Bring the milk to the boil & add it to the beaten yolks, pouring slowly & beating all the while
• Melt the chocolate in a bowl above (but not touching) some simmering water in a pan
• Then whisk this, followed by the cocoa, into the egg & milk mixture
• Pour the chocolate-custard mixture into a pan & cook on a low to moderate heat, stirring with a wooden spoon, until everything’s smooth & amalgamated & beginning to thicken (don’t cook until it’s really custard-like, but slightly less)
• Put 2 tablespoons of sugar with 2 teaspoons of water into a thick bottomed saucepan & turn the heat to high
• Make a caramel: heat this until it’s dark brown & molten (you are after the taste of burnt sugar)
• As it browns, whisk it into the chocolate custard; don’t worry if it crystallizes on contact as the whisking will dissolve it
• Turn into a bowl to cool
• Then chill in the fridge for about 20 mins (or longer if that’s more convenient) before churning in your ice-cream maker according to instructions.

The ice cream maker is great - I dont think its a year in year out use type of investment, it's made of plastic on the outside and then the inner tub which is what you need to freeze before you use it, is obviously metal. It was really easy to use, and Ill definately be using it again!


This is also my submission for Bloggers Scream for Ice Cream! The challenge is to recreate your face childhood experience or flavour. That's really hard to narrow down, but I'm choosing chocolate orange because when we were kids, we used to get jaffas sometimes, if we were lucky! They were round balls with a red shell, like MnMs or Smarties. The red dye would come off, and we used to paint our lips with it, the garish red, and  pretend we were sophisticated ladies about town!