The Perfect Scoop - Chocolate Ice Cream {with Amano Madagascar}

Back in May, I purchased the amazing-of-oh-so-amazing ice cream cookbooks called The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz.

Since then I've made, and failed to post about, a few recipes. I know I'm bad...

The most recent ice cream recipe I tried was the Chocolate Ice Cream one found on page 26.

In his book, David tells you there are two types of ice creams. 1) French Style, which is a cooked custard made with egg yolks and 2) American Style/Philadelphia-Style, made with cream or a combination of cream and milk, but without eggs.

This particular recipe was a French-style, custard-based ice cream. Oh man, oh man! It was so good. I would consider myself an novice-intermediate student of ice cream, but this was my first custard-based ice cream. So I was a-tempering egg yolks. :)

I was inspired to make this particular recipe because the day before I had toured the Amano Chocolate factory/warehouse. {More on that later} But would you believe me if I told you that some of the best chocolate in the entire world comes from my hometown of Orem, Utah? Crazy right! Way cool....and I got to tour the place and learn all about it with my friend Maria of Two Peas and Their Pod... okay, back to the ice cream!

So I splurged and purchased some Amano Chocolate in bulk. I got Amano Madagascar (70%), Amano White Chocolate/Cocoa Butter (only sold in bulk) and some Ocumare Cocoa Nibs.

Naturally I had to make chocolate ice cream with this new treasure! (I also added some amazing Domori Apurimac cocoa powder I bought from Tony Caputo's Market.)

The result. I made the custard well. Followed the directions and um...these high-quality ingredients really pulled through and delivered a delicious and complex chocolate ice cream.

I just thought the whole process was beautiful and somehow just made me feel special. {weird i know.} I just loved the raisin flavor that pulled through from the chocolate! Adam and I were really in awe. We just kept saying how good it was...and I truly think it was one of the best things I've made!








Here's the recipe:
Chocolate Ice Cream
from The Perfect Scoop

Makes about 1 Quart (1 liter)

Ingredients:
2 cups heavy cream (i used meadow gold)
3 TB unsweetened dutch-process cocoa powder ( i used domori apurimac from caputos)
5 oz. bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped (i used amano's madagascar 70%)
1 cup whole milk (used winder farms)
3/4 cup sugar (used c&h sugar)
pinch of salt
5 large egg yolks
1/2 tsp vanilla extract (used blue cattle truck vanilla)

Directions:
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 yolks. 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 medium heat with a heatproof spatula, scraping the bottom as you stir, until the mixture thickens and coats the spatula. 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.)


If you like this chocolate ice cream, you might also like:
* Blueberry Sour Cream Ice Cream by Project Domestication
* Honey Peach Ice Cream by Project Domestication
* Cinnamon Ice Cream by Two Peas and Their Pod
* Salted Butter Caramel Ice Cream by Spork or Foon?
* Olive Oil Ice Cream with Balsamic Strawberries by Bonnie the Baker: Blog
* Milk Chocolate Ice Cream with Reese Whoppers by What's Cooking in the Orange Kitchen?