Rich Dark Chocolate Ice Cream (no eggs)

Chocolate ice cream is really difficult for some reason. When I was working at Sucre, it was always the one that had the most problems. After making it a couple of times several different ways, I understand why that was the case. Maybe it's just me, but it always seems to make the biggest mess. Actually, anything that involves melting chocolate is a mess. Probably because the chocolate gets all over your hands, which in turn gets all over everything. But store bought chocolate ice cream doesn't even come close to this stuff. It's the real deal. After I took it out of the refrigerator to pour into the ice cream maker, it looked like pudding. Actually, I bet it could have passed for pudding. Maybe I should try just putting plain ole puddin' in my ice cream maker and see what happens....If i'm lucky the low fat stuff will work so I can trick myself out of making this amazing semi-frozen sin again....

Rich Chocolate Ice Cream (no eggs)
This recipe is from Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home 

Ingredients

1 cup whole milk

1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon cornstarch

2 ounces bittersweet chocolate 

1 ¼ cups heavy cream

1 cup evaporated milk

2/3 cup sugar

2 tablespoons light corn syrup

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

¼ teaspoon salt 

First, get everything in place before attempting to start cooking. Trying to make the slurry and prepare the ice bath etc. while trying to watch the pot is too difficult and it leaves you incredibly flustered and overwhelmed.

• In a small bowl, whisk together two tablespoons of the milk mixture with the cornstarch and set aside. 
• Have the chocolate (you can use disks or chopped. I used dark chocolate disks from Whole Foods)
• Fill a large bowl with ice and set a smaller bowl on top with a plastic bag open and ready to go 
• In the sauce pan, combine all of the ingredients, excluding the salt, before turning on the heat. (The recipe says to wait until the milk mixture is boiling before adding the cocoa, but that made a big mess when I did it and the cocoa didn't mix properly. I had to use a, immersion blender and strainer to get most of the chunks out, so I think adding it before is probably the better choice.)

Once everything is in place, NOW you can start cooking your ice cream!

1. Bring the mixture to a rolling boil over medium high heat. Once it has reached that point, reduce the heat so the milk mixture doesn't boil over and make a huge mess. (*hint* if you put a wooden spoon on top of the pot, it prevents the mixture from boiling over. It can only work so well, though, so I ended up adding two wooden spoons towards the end.)
2. Boil the mixture for 4 minutes. 
3. Remove from the heat and pour in the cornstarch mixture.
4. Bring the pot back to a boil, stirring constantly, for about a minute or until it has thickened slightly. 
5. Remove from the heat and pour about a half a cup or so over the chocolate disks. When the chocolate is melted, pour it back into the milk mixture and whisk to combine. 
6. Pour the ice cream into the plastic bag set over the ice bath. At this point the ice should have melted a big, but if not, you might want to add a touch of water. 
7. Chill over the ice bath until completely cool. The plastic bag can be completely submerged into the ice bath like the book suggests, however I think its easier and cleaner to place a second bowl on top to prevent water accidentally getting into the bag and ruining the consistency of the ice cream. 
8. Refrigerate for at least an hour or preferably over night before freezing.