Rich and Fudgy Chocolate Ice Cream
Amazingly, it is not oily to taste and has no eggs in it!
"It's official! This is now my favorite chocolate ice cream!" said my fussy husband when he and my son shared a cup of this yummy ice cream.
Knowing that my husband is REAL fussy, I have to say that I'm a little shocked hearing his compliment but at least I know that he is not faking. LOL!
"It is rich, fudgy, smooth and yet not oily at all!!!" my husband continued praising the ice cream as he was washing the cup that he used to contain his ice cream. "See! Washing this cup is easy!!! It's not greasy!!!"
"You may wish to know there is NO eggs and egg yolks in this ice cream and it is made with moderate amount of cream." I felt proud that I made this ice cream and tried to explain how I made it.
"Mum, can you make more of this ice cream?" After hearing what we talked about this ice cream, my son knew that I wouldn't mind making this less sinful ice cream and took this opportunity to request for more... So cheeky! Obviously, I said yes and as I was walking away to do other chores, I can see my husband is beginning to look wary...
"Did you lie to us? Did you add egg yolks in this ice cream?" My husband was still thinking about this ice cream... LOL!
Why the suspicion??? Let's do a flashback to the day before I made this ice cream...*Flash* *Flash*
"We want you to make rich chocolate ice cream!" said my husband and son.And so I did a Google search for "chocolate ice cream" and I found many recipes at here, here, here, here, here and more... Knowing that these recipes are mostly highly reviewed and rated, have no doubt that these recipes are going to make really good chocolate ice cream. However, when I looked at these recipes closely, I noticed that these recipes use quite a significant amount of egg yolks and cream! Hmmm..."Are you sure that you want me to make very rich chocolate ice cream?" I asked. "There is quite a lot of egg yolks and cream in it"Ironically, no one said anything!!!
Then I thought... Maybe I wasn't Googling enough. With more research and reading, I eventually found this really good chocolate ice cream recipe made by David Lebovitz. According David, this ice cream recipe originates from the book, Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams at Home by Jeni Britton Bauer. Jeni is the founder of the famous Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams in Ohio. "Oh! I know this name!!!" I said to myself! Although I have not been to Ohio and have not try Jeni's ice cream before, I have heard many praises of Jeni's ice cream and also her book.For this recipe, Jeni didn't use egg yolks to thicken her ice cream. Instead, she uses corn flour and an interesting quick chill technique to cool her ice cream mixture to minimise the amount of ice crystal forming before churning. Following her recipe, this is how I made this "really splendid chocolate ice cream"...
First, I made this cornflour-and-milk mixture and this will be our ice cream thickener.
Next, I added cream, evaporated milk, the remaining milk ...
... sugar and corn syrup into a large saucepan.
Whisk and cook the mixture until it comes to a moderate boil.
To dissolve the cocoa powder fully, whisk and cook the mixture further for about 4 mins.
Then, add cornflour mixture and continue to whisk and cook for 1 min or until it is slightly thickened.
Remove the saucepan from the heat and then stir in chocolate, salt and vanilla.
This is the quick chill technique that Jeni used to minimise the amount of ice forming in her ice cream!
And this is what I did to chill the mixture immediately.
Do not take short cut by leaving the ice cream mixture to chill in the fridge on its own as it will form a jelly-like mixture and this will cause the ice cream to be icy!
After 30 mins of chilling, the ice cream is churned immediately...
See how rich and smooth this ice cream!
I'm not wasting this splendid glossy and thick chocolaty melted ice cream...
Yeah... I'm going to lick this bowl after I took this pic... keke!
Back to my story when my husband was questioning me...
"... Did you add egg yolks in this ice cream?"
"You have to trust me. I didn't add any egg yolks in this ice cream. It was thickened by cornflour!"
Then I can see my husband looked sort of convinced as he asked "Can you make more of this ice cream?"
*Smile*
Here's the recipe that is mostly adapted from David Lebovitz (original recipe is from the book Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams at Home by Jeni Britton Bauer
Makes about 1L /1 quart (but about 100ml lesser than 1L)
1 cup (250ml) whole milk4 tsp corn starch / cornflour
1 cup (250ml) cream with 35% fat
1 cup (250ml)* evaporated milk (the regular one, not low fat)
1/2 cup (100g) caster sugar
(This amount of sweetness is just right for us but if you like a sweeter ice cream, you can increase this amount to 2/3 cup, 130g which is the original amount)
2 tbsp (60g) light corn syrup
1/3 cup (35g) unsweetened cocoa powder, natural or Dutch-process (I used Valrhona)
3 ounces (85g) bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, finely chopped (I used Callebaut dark chocolate callets with 70% cocoa)
1/4 tsp salt - This is a must as it will bring out the flavor of your chocolate
1/2 tsp vanilla extract or paste
*To minimise wastage, I have tried using the whole can (375ml) instead of 1 cup (250ml) evaporated milk to make my subsequent ice cream and it works well for me too. Although the additional evaporated milk makes the ice cream less rich in its chocolate flavour, less fudgy in its texture and less sweet in its taste, it is surprisingly as creamy and satisfying as the original ice cream.
for chilling:
adequate ice and ice cold watermake more ice and chill the water in the fridge on the day before making this ice cream
1 extra large zip lock bag
(you can use more bags to increase the surface area of cooling but you will lose a lot more ice cream mixture as the ice cream mixture will stick on the zip lock bag even after you pour the mixture off into the ice cream maker)
Place cornflour in a small bowl. Add 2-3 tbsp of the milk mix until mixture forms a smooth slurry.
In large saucepan, heat the rest of the milk, cream, evaporated milk, sugar, and corn syrup until mixture comes to a moderate boil. Whisk in the cocoa powder, then let mixture cook at a modest boil for 4 mins. Then, whisk in the cornflour mixture and continue to cook and whisk for one min until slightly thickened. Important: Do not over-cook the mixture!
Remove from heat and add the chopped chocolate and salt, stirring until the chocolate is completely melted and the mixture is smooth. Stir in the vanilla.
Transfer the ice cream mixture into a zip lock plastic bag. Using zip lock bag to cool the ice cream mixture help to increase a larger surface area to chill. Pour the ice cold water and add ice in a large mixture bowl or if you didn't prepare the cold water in advance, you can prepared a bowl of water filled with a lot more ice. Submerge the bag into the bowl of cold water and allow mixture to cool in the fridge for 30 mins. Important: Do not chill the mixture for too long as the mixture will become jelly-like after prolong time of chilling! You can do this in room temperature but you have to keep adding ice during this cooling period.
At the last 5-10 mins of cooling step, start setting up your ice cream maker. Remove the bag from the cold water and wipe off any excess water. Pour the mixture into the canister of an ice cream maker, squeezing every single drop of this ice cream mixture from the zip lock bag, then freeze according to the manufacturer’s instructions.
When it is ready, transfer ice cream into a container and continue to freeze ice cream until firm.
Freeze for up to 2 months. Serve whenever you want a yummy chocolate ice cream... for today, tomorrow or your Easter celebration :)
Enjoy this "our officially best chocolate" ice cream! Happy Easter!Please support me and like me at Facebook...
