When we were younger, I remember my brother liked fudgsicles. However, I was never a big fan of chocolate ice cream. There's something too plain or boring about it. It lacks punch. Or it's too similar to milk chocolate when I much prefer dark chocolate. Or maybe I just haven't had the right chocolate ice cream yet. This was an opportunity to have my mind changed.
This is actually my second attempt at chocolate ice cream. The first one I made tasted good (very dark chocolatey) but was hard as a rock and a pain to scoop. It must have been Phildadelphia style (eggless/non-custard). I forget which recipe I used but I found it on the internet somewhere or combined two recipes which probably wasn't a good idea. I was hoping the eggs in this version would smooth out the texture and soften the consistency white still being chocolatey.
David Lebovitz's opening line in the entry for this chocolate ice cream recipe (found in his book "The Perfect Scoop") is what sold me on trying chocolate ice cream again. He says "My search for the ultimate chocolate ice cream ended the day I opened my ice cream maker and took a taste of this version." Quite convincing, sir.
This ice cream is fairly easy to make. It just has the added step of melting chocolate into the heavy cream before heating the milk and making the custard. The recipe doesn't specify what percentage cacao to use so I used 72% since I like my chocolate dark. This time around I tempered the eggs without a problem but was too hasty in reheating the custard and ended up with one or two curdled egg bits here and there which I strained out. I've been trying to speed up the process of making the base/custard by heating things faster (while still scraping and stirring of course) because when I started out a few months ago I would heat everything super slowly. It was fine since I never curdled the milk or eggs but it just took forever. This time I was pushing it to see how thick it could get before it started to curdle. I took it slightly too far but not as bad as some I've ruined in the past. In the future, I should turn down the heat when I see the steam start to come off the mixture. I've also tried going by temperature (recommended ~170 degress F) but it seems like I have to let it keep going to get it to thicken because it still seems to thin if i pull the heat at that temperature. After freezing I haven't really noticed a difference in texture either way but maybe I haven't done it right enough times.
As it turns out, this chocolate ice cream isn't half bad. It's smoother and silkier than the one I made last time while still tasting chocolatey. But I still feel like it needs something else mixed in to make me want to eat it. I guess I'm not a pure chocolate ice cream lover. I need some nuts or toffee or oreo or something else to make it more interesting. That's why there are toppings I guess. This one goes in the pile that I would only make by request, not because I'm having a craving for it. Maybe I'll try the Philadelphia style chocolate ice cream from his book in the future but only after I make a few other ones I've been meaning to try.
Hazulnut ice cream was originally the next flavor I wanted to make but the local supermarket failed to have any hazelnuts. They had prepackaged chopped hazelnuts which I guess would have worked but I'd rather have whole hazelnuts and chop them up myself. I didn't want to drive around so I ended up making chocolate ice cream since I already had all the ingredients for it.
Chocolate Ice Cream Recipe Here