When I was around 8, my brother Andrew won a bicycle from a drawing at Baskin Robbins. It wasn’t just any bike though; it was a brown, pink and white polka dot bike. Super cool for a 12 year old boy, right? Famous for their 31 flavors of ice cream, my family helped keep that place in business with our frequent trips. Mint chocolate chip ice cream cakes were birthday favorites, but I especially loved those little clown cups they had, with the scoop of ice cream decorated with that totally amazing super sugary icing topped with a cone hat. Do you remember those? Do they still make them? If they do, I have to take my kids.
Well, that bike sat in the garage for years, and sadly I have no idea whatever happened to it. (I can only imagine what it would go for on ebay these 3 plus decades later!) But I do know what’s happened to my love of ice cream: it’s grown. And there’s no chance of it disappearing the way that polka dot beauty did.
As I’m sure you’ve gathered, I have a thing for chocolate. If my first ever post about chocolate cake didn’t give it away, maybe the chocolate almond frosting clued you in. And if you still missed it, the chocolate milk hopefully made it pretty obvious. Then there were the brown butter chocolate chip cookies, the brown butter brownies with dark chocolate chunks, and of course the chewy sesame granola bars with dark chocolate. (Are you noticing a theme?) So it might surprise you to know that I’ve never been a huge chocolate ice cream fan. As someone who strongly believes the darker the chocolate the better, I feel like most chocolate ice creams just aren’t chocolaty enough.
But the beauty of making something at home, from scratch, is that you can make it any way you like. Not only can you use “the good stuff” (high quality bittersweet chocolate,) but you can also decide how much of it you want. After trying several recipes for chocolate ice cream over the years, the closest I came to happy was a recipe I found in David Lebovitz’s “The Perfect Scoop.” But even then, it wasn’t intense enough for me, and left me wanting. (But seriously, his book is amazing. The Mango Sorbet, Mocha Sherbert, Strawberry Sorbet, and his Vietnamese Coffee Ice Cream are reason enough to buy it.) So, doing as I do, I played around until I found my dream combination. I reduced the sugar, increased the cocoa powder, changed the balance of chocolate in the custard mix, threw in some almond extract, and of course added chocolate chunks.
This alone was enough for me. But then one day, I thought, “Hey, don’t I have some leftover chocolate cake in the freezer?” And it was game over. I hit my chocolate ice cream nirvana. Crumbled up bites of my favorite cake mixed in, with slivers of Ghiradelli chocolate laced throughout the deepest darkest chocolate ice cream. I served it to company, and there was silence in the room as everyone devoured it.
A week later, it was my sister-in-law’s birthday, and instead of shopping for a present I made a batch just for her, wrapped up with a bow. The following day, I received an email with the subject line: OMFG. My heart skipped a beat, worried that something terrible had happened, but when I opened up the message it said, “Is there a way to name it OMFG ice cream? Because that is actually what goes through my head with every bite.” I have to say I feel the same way.
So if you have never made ice cream before, this is a fool proof place to start. I promise you won’t be disappointed. Ice cream makers aren’t a huge investment, and the return on happiness is huge. My instructions below assume you have never done this, and I spell it all out for you in the simplest way possible. And with Valentine’s day just around the corner, consider this Extra Dark Chocolate Ice Cream as the perfect gift. I don’t often make much of this particular occasion, but I will never pass up an opportunity to share and enjoy chocolate. Flowers, jewels, and fancy restaurants may be the expected route for some, but this homemade bit of love is guaranteed to hit straight to the heart.
This Extra Dark Chocolate Ice Cream made with high quality bittersweet chocolate, filled with chocolate chunks and even moist chocolate cake is decadent in every way. Rich and satisfying, it is perfect for a special occasion, to make as a gift, or just on a Monday night. It's definitely an instance of homemade being better than anything you will find in the store.
Ingredients
- 2 cups heavy cream
- 5 Tablespoons cocoa powder (preferably dark)
- 3 oz. bittersweet chocolate, chopped (either 60% or 72% cacao)
- 2 oz. unsweetened chocolate, chopped (100% cacao)
- 1 cup whole milk
- 1/2 cup sugar
- pinch of salt
- 5 large egg yolks
- 1 teaspoon almond extract
- 1½ cups semi-sweet chocolate chips, chunks, or chopped up chocolate
- 1½ cups frozen pieces of chocolate cake (optional)
Instructions
To start off, you will need a small saucepan, a large mixing bowl, a strainer, a whisk, a spatula, a liquid measuring cup, and two bowls for separating your eggs (a medium sized one for the yolks and a small one for the whites.) Also get out a large pan that you can use as an ice bath.
Pour 1 cup of heavy cream and the cocoa powder into your saucepan, and whisk it over medium heat until it is combined. Once it starts bubbling, keep whisking for 30 more seconds and then take it off the stove. Add in the chopped up chocolates and stir until it's smooth. Stir in the second cup of heavy cream. Pour the chocolatey cream into your large bowl , and place a strainer on top of it.
In your same saucepan that you haven't washed, warm the milk, sugar and salt over a medium heat, mixing it all together until the sugar is dissolved. Once the mixture is warm, slowly pour at least half into your medium bowl that has the yolks, whisking constantly. (You are doing this so that you temper the eggs, getting them used to the heat so that they don't cook and become scrambled eggs when you add them to the saucepan, because that is just gross in ice cream.) Once you have made sure that the egg yolks are sufficiently warmed and smooth, pour the eggs with the milk back into the saucepan. Over a medium heat, stir this continually for 6-7 minutes, until it becomes thickened and coats the spatula. Even though you cooked the eggs properly, you still need to pour all of this through the strainer into the large bowl, because there will probably be little pieces of cooked egg that are just unavoidable. (So don't skip the strainer!) Then add in the almond extract and mix until everything is smooth again.
Fill your giant pan (or a really large bowl) with ice and cold water, and place your bowl of chocolaty custard in the middle of it, so that the cold water goes up the sides. While it sits in this ice bath, stir your mixture until it is cool enough to transfer to the refrigerator to chill, covered. (I pour it into a tupperware first so that I don't have to make room for a big bowl in the fridge.)
Once the custard is completely cold (at least a couple of hours, but overnight is fine too,) freeze it in your ice cream maker according to its instructions. (My Cuisinart can take 25-35 minutes.) Mix in your chocolate chips and/or your chocolate cake. Eat it right away, or transfer it to a container and let it become even harder in the freezer for as long as you can bear to wait.
Notes
*This recipe is inspired by David Lebovitz's chocolate ice cream in his book, The Perfect Scoop.
Yum! I’d like to request this next time I visit 🙂
Sooo…I think your OMFG ice cream will beat out the Baskin Robbins clown cups any day of the week but just in case you were feeling nostalgic, they STILL have both the single cone AND a cake:
Baskin-Robbins | Clown Cone http://baskinrobbins.com/content/baskinrobbins/en/products/cake/cakegallery.html?popupurl=/content/baskinrobbins/en/products/cake/cakegallery/clown_cone.html
Baskin-Robbins | Clown Cone Party Round Cake (With Sprinkles) http://baskinrobbins.com/content/baskinrobbins/en/products/cake/cakegallery.html?popupurl=/content/baskinrobbins/en/products/cake/cakegallery/clown-cone-party-round-cake.html
I was always a Carvel ice cream cake girl, myself. Those chocolate crunchies?? Nom, nom, nom…
Oh, Cristina, you made my night! Carvel’s crunchies are delicious, but BR will always hold a place in my heart. 🙂 Thank you!
I tried this recipe tonight; It is very good. My husband loves me more! Thank you for the recipe!
I’m so thrilled to hear that, Maria! Thanks for letting me know!