It's the summer of ice cream, which doesn't really differentiate from any other summer.
My favorite ice cream ever was Chocolate Butterccream ice cream from Mad Martha's in Martha's Vineyard. I had it years ago; I've always wondered about recreating it. And I think I just did.
David Lebovitz's The Perfect Scoop has a recipe for Milk Chocolate Ice Cream. I substituted Vanilla for the Cognac and increased the salt to a generous 1/4 tsp.
Chocolate Buttercream Ice Cream Barely adapted from David Lebovitz.
8 oz. milk chocolate with at least 30% cocoa solids, finely chopped
1 1/2 C heavy cream
1 1/2 C whole milk
3/4 C sugar
generous 1/4 tsp salt
4 egg yolks
2 tsp vanilla
Put the chocolate and the cream together in the top of a double boiler over, not immersed in, simmering water and stir it just until the chocolate melts, then take it off the simmering water.
Warm the milk, sugar and salt in a heavy pot and stir it until the sugar mostly dissolves. Whisk the egg yolks. Very carefully and slowly, I use a ladle, add about half of the milk to the egg yolks, whisking like crazy. Then pour the egg and milk mixture back into the rest of the milk, still whisking like crazy.
Stir this with a heat proof spatula over low heat, or medium low if you are impatient, but then really watch it. It will thicken and coat the back of the spatula. If you over cook it, the custard will curdle, and then you probably have to start over. Unless it just curdles a little bit, like mine did, and then go on and make it anyway. The little bit of curdling didn't seem to adversely effect the finished product. Once it is thick enough, take it off the heat.
Pour the custard through a strainer into the cream and chocolate mixture, add the vanilla and chill it, either in an ice bath or in the fridge. When it is well chilled freeze it in your ice cream maker.
2 comments:
Hi Marg it's Kimmy, Alison sent this to me bc it's also the summer of ice cream in Berkeley (trying to keep pace with our 2-gelato/day habit in Italia earlier this summer). So so so good & I don't even generally like milk chocolate. Couldn't wait until it chilled so poured a bit over mint chip ice cream before I put it in the fridge for the night which was not a bad thing at all. I find it so hard to make a custard w milk, just never seems to set up then I turn heat up & it curdles a bit and strain etc. Any reason not to make the custard w the cream and add milk & chocolate after? I usually do that w ice cream or maybe you have a tip for me on getting milk to thicken better. Happy summer, xo Kimmy
Hi Kimmy,
I make the custard with milk only because the recipes always do it that way. Next time, I'll try making the custard with cream, sounds like a good option.
My custards have gotten thicker since Elise scoffed at what I was considering an adequate coating on the back of a spoon. Elise pushes the boundaries here. I started to also risk going too far. I have found that the moment when the custard has just begun to curdle, is exactly the right time to stop cooking it. This makes a custard of perfect thickness for ice cream. It has worked for me several times and I now consider the just curdled stage to be the custard goal for making ice cream. Happy scooping!
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