Ice cream, you scream

As I'm writing this, it is pouring rain outside. The wind is howling and I can see the trees from my window swinging back and forth like green giants caught in a storm, trying to find their balance by opening their huge, leafy arms wide open.






As I'm writing this, I'm eating ice cream. It is not the typical thing one would eat in such a weather but I have always been a stubborn person. I'm still resisting the idea that it is officially autumn.






I'm in an ice cream-making mode for quite some time now and I'm not planning to stop. Not in the foreseeable future. Not unless S gets sick of testing my icy experiments or I get sick of craving them—neither will be happening any time soon, I can assure you. So be warned; you might see some out of season ice cream recipes here in the following months. I hope you're game.






I have always been crazy for chocolate ice cream but I've been reluctant to make it myself for a very long time. I thought that it couldn't possibly be as good as the ones from my favorite ice cream shops so why bother. Boy, was I wrong.






When my first chocolate ice cream came out of the freezer, I couldn't believe I was the one that had made it. It was intensely chocolatey with a creamy texture that made me scream with joy. I had of course David Lebovitz, the ice cream genius, and his "Perfect Scoop", my ice cream bible, to thank for its success.






There's really no need to be intimidated by the idea of making ice cream. It's rather simple once you get the hang of it. Making the custard is perhaps the most tricky part, making sure your eggs don't separate or curdle, but apart from that, everything else is a piece of cake.






Yes, you'll probably need an ice cream maker to achieve a smooth texture and the right consistency, but I have tried it the old-fashioned way too and it was still pretty good.






My mom was visiting last month from Greece and I made this ice cream for her. My mom doesn't like ice cream. In fact, my mom hates ice cream; particularly chocolate ice cream. When she tasted this one though, she asked for a second scoop, and the next day she went snooping in the freezer to eat some more.
Man, it felt good to finally make an ice cream lover out of her.












Homemade Dark Chocolate Ice Cream
Adapted from The Perfect Scoop

It is very important that you use a chocolate whose flavor you enjoy because that's how your ice cream will taste. Make sure that it's a good quality chocolate as well.

I have made this ice cream with 70% as well as with 55% chocolate and it was equally flavorsome. As expected, if you use 70% chocolate, your ice cream will have a more bitter chocolate taste.

After churning the ice cream, you can add some chopped chocolate [if I write the word chocolate one more time I will scream] in order to give it a more intense chocolate [insert scream here] flavor.

If you don't have an ice cream maker, don't fret. Below, I'm including instructions on how to make the ice cream without it.







Yield: about 1 liter of ice cream

Ingredients
470 ml cream, full fat
30 g (3 heaped Tbsp) cocoa powder, Dutch processed
140 g dark 55% chocolate, chopped
240 ml whole milk
160 g sugar
Pinch of salt
4 large egg yolks
½ tsp vanilla extract

Special equipment: fine sieve, ice cream maker (optional yet preferable), instant-read thermometer (optional)


Preparation
In a medium-sized saucepan, add half of the cream and all of the cocoa powder. Heat over medium heat, whisking constantly until the cocoa powder has completely dissolved. Bring to the boil, reduce heat to low and simmer for 30 seconds, whisking continuously.
Take the saucepan off the heat and add the chopped chocolate. Whisk until the chocolate has melted into the cream and you have a smooth mixture.
Add the remaining half of the cream and stir with a rubber spatula. Empty the mixture into a large bowl, making sure you scrape every last drop of the mixture out of the saucepan. Set a fine sieve over the bowl.

Using the same saucepan, add the milk, sugar and salt and warm over medium heat, stirring until the sugar dissolves. The milk must get warm, not hot.
In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together the four egg yolks. Very slowly, pour the warm milk over the egg yolks, whisking quickly and continuously. When you have poured all of the milk, return mixture to the saucepan and heat over medium heat, stirring constantly with a heatproof spatula. Stir the mixture until it thickens and coats the spatula, or until an instant-read thermometer reads 76 degrees Celsius.
Pour the custard through the fine sieve and into the bowl containing the cream-chocolate mixture. Stir well with a spatula until well blended and add the vanilla extract. Stir well.


Fill a large bowl with ice cubes and a little water, and place the bowl with the ice cream mixture on top. Stir the mixture with a rubber spatula in order to cool it down. Once cool, cover the bowl with plastic wrap and place it in the refrigerator for about 1 hour.
Then whisk the mixture and pour it into your ice cream maker. Continue, following the manufacturer's instructions.

Alternatively, if you don't have an ice cream maker, empty the chilled ice cream mixture into a container suitable for the freezer. Put mixture in the freezer, take it out after 40 minutes and whisk it very well. You can also beat it with a spatula vigorously (or you can use a blender, or even a stick blender).
Continue doing the same thing every half hour, until it's too thick and frozen to beat or whisk. The whole process will take about two and a half hours.