I wish I knew what it was that made certain things jump out of people's blogs and say "
Make me! Make me now!" I'm not a big fan of chocolate ice cream. To use a Josh-style metaphor, if I was at a Chocolate Ice Cream concert, I might be tapping my toes, but I wouldn't be on my feet screaming. Yet when I saw the chocolate ice cream that Erin from
Dinner & Dessert posted a few days ago, for some reason I knew I was gonna make it. I even left her a comment saying I thought it would be good with some frozen bananas mixed in. And what did I do?? 2 days later I made the ice cream and mixed in some frozen chopped up bananas. Talk about a self-fulfilling prophecy!
Now, since I've already noted my bias about chocolate ice cream, I give this recipe a 3 out of 5, but let me explain why. It's not that it wasn't delicious. It was extremely good, and the pieces of banana added a refreshing taste, as well as an excuse to think you're eating "healthy." However, it was waayy too rich. I usually limit myself to one scoop of ice cream in a coffee cup (it looks bigger in a little cup, so I think I'm getting more). But I could barely finish my serving before I was feeling sick. I can't tell if it's just too sweet or too creamy. I compared this recipe to my favorite
coffee ice cream. The dairy dontent is the same, but the sugar content is much higher in the chocolate ice cream. I might make it again and just reduce the amount of sugar. I also noticed that this ice cream froze hard as a rock, and the coffee ice cream stayed somewhat soft when frozen. I guess it's because the chocolate hardens... duh. But don't let my opinion discourage you from making it. If you can handle super rich, super chocolatey ice cream, then this is for you!
I'm really unhappy with these pictures. I planned on using the daylight, but when I took the ice cream out to soften so I could scoop it, I forgot about it and left it out for almost 2 hours! When it finally got hard enough to scoop again, the sun was on it's way down. I'll probably replace these pictures with better ones tomorrow. Until then, bear with me!
Chocolate Ice Cream (from The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz)
Makes about 1 quart
2 cups heavy cream
3 tablespoons unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
5 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped
1 cup whole milk
3/4 cup sugar (If I made it again, I'd reduce this to 2/3 cup)
Pinch of salt
5 large egg yolks
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 bananas, diced and frozen (optional)
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 unto 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 (You want to get it nice and cold. Chilling it overnight would be best, but I chilled mine for about 4 hours), 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 out).
And now...... for another edition of Not Your Momma's Test Kitchen brought to you by How To Eat A Cupcake! Thank you so very much to Jordana Weiner for submitting David Lebovitz's recipe for Dulce de Leche Brownies! I'm pretty sure no one will ever submit a recipe that will be able to top this one! I encourage you to try, but just know this is some very serious competition! You want to know just how good these brownies are?? During a commercial break of the elimination episode of American Idol, I got up to sneak a little taste of these brownies while they were still warm. They are SO FREAKIN GOOD that American Idol is STILL paused as I'm blogging this! I couldn't keep it to myself. I had to let the world know that I am in dulce de leche brownie heaven right now!
The brownie itself is a cross between cakey and fudgy (cakey/fudgy hybrids = the best brownies, IMHO). The chocolate flavor is spot on! And the little dollops of dulce de leche are so creamy and sweet and awesome! I've never had memorable success with homemade brownies, but now I'm ready to shout from a rooftop that I have found sweet brownie utopia!!
Ahh, pure decadence!!
Click the next photo for a close-up you can practically TASTE! :P
