“Oh, dear, no. We must have French chocolate and ice cream, besides. The girls are used to such things” Alcott, Louisa May. Little Women
We’ve made so many different chocolate ice creams in search of one we’re really thrilled with and none passed muster until now as texture is vital and harder to perfect for chocolate than vanilla. This one at last has earned a firm place in our freezer staples.
Notes
Texture is everything – to avoid graininess make sure the mixture is fully homogenised and smooth prior to freezing. When incorporating the vanilla cream mixture into the ground chocolate and sugar mix, be sure to check that you don’t stop mixing until the sugar is completely dissolved, the chocolate completely melted, and the ingredients fully combined to a smooth consistency. On a similar note, when you remove the mixture from the fridge prior to freezing, you may find a ‘skin’ has formed on top. Be sure to whisk well until you have a completely smooth mixture again before placing into your ice cream maker – a Thermomix is especially handy here as you can quickly process the mixture again before freezing.
WHAT YOU’LL NEED
Equipment:
- saucepan
- food processor
- spatula
- freezer-proof storage bowl (at least 1L capacity)
- ice cream machine – we use this Cuisinart one which we love. It’s quiet, easy to use and clean and has several smart features including a lid you can easily open during churning to add ingredients. The Gaggia Gelateria also comes recommended by a friend. If budget allows, these two both avoid the requirement for cheaper versions to pre-freeze the bowl. Having an inbuilt freezer makes a world of difference to ease of use and prevent it becoming just another disused gadget.
Makes: 1 Litre
INGREDIENTS
- 220ml full fat milk
- 450 ml double cream
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 100 grams caster sugar
- 100 grams dark chocolate (70% cocoa)
- 100 grams milk chocolate
The above chocolate quantities make for a rich chocolate flavour which we find gives the perfect balance of sweet but not too sweet, but feel free to vary the ratio of milk to dark according to personal preference.
If you want to add chocolate chips or a similar addition as we did, add the following five minutes before you finish churning and before pouring the ice cream into a freezer proof storage dish:
- 100 grams dark chocolate chunks (70% cocoa)
METHOD
- Heat the milk, cream and vanilla extract in a saucepan over medium heat until just bubbling round the edges.
- Place the sugar and chocolate into a food processor and process until finely chopped. Add the hot vanilla cream mixture to the processor and combine until smooth. We used our Thermomix for this, which is handy as it allows you to continue heating the mixture while blending for the perfect consistency.
- Transfer to a medium bowl to cool completely (if you’ve used your Thermomix, feel free to leave it in the Thermomix bowl at this point) before covering and storing in the fridge for at least three hours and ideally overnight.
- Remove the mixture from the fridge and whisk well. If you’ve stored the mixture in your thermomix bowl, fit the bowl back on the thermomix base and process briefly until the mixture if perfectly smooth to ensure no graininess.
- With the ice cream paddle fitted, pour mixture into your ice cream maker and churn according to the directions of your machine. Alternatively, if you haven’t got a machine, place the mixture into your pre-chilled freeze-proof bowl and place it in the freezer, removing to stir a total of three or four times once an hour. This will hopefully reduce the ice crystals that form.
- Five minutes before the machine has finished, the ice cream should have thickened but remain fairly soft. Add your chocolate chunks or similar and allow the churn to continue mixing for the remainder of its time.
- Pour ice cream into your freezer-proof dish and place in the freezer for four hours before serving.
To finish:
Remove from freezer to serve as desired. With a little extra time we usually enjoy this with macerated berries and lashings of toffee sauce or piled into a waffle cone and sprinkled with chopped pistachios on a warm summer’s day.
