Mexican Chocolate Ice Cream

Before I begin this post, I have to make a public announcement.

I love ice cream.

No really, I LOVE ice cream.

I'm not talkin' the occasional bowl on a hot summer day "oh that was nice" kinda love. I mean, I love ice cream to the point where I could eat it every day, big ol' bowl full, multiple times a day kinda love. That's how much I love the stuff.

Funny thing is, I don't like too many flavors. It's one of the few things in life where I'm a minimalist. I like two maybe three flavors. Chocolate, coffee, and a good vanilla ice cream (which in my book is difficult to find).

Now, don't get me wrong. I'll try other flavors and while they are "oh that was nice", my die hard obsession falls under chocolate. It never fails that when we visit our local all time favorite ice cream shop, I always get some flavor of chocolate. It's an obsession....I told you.

So a week ago when I was asking my boss if she had an ice cream maker and she replied with a sly smile and said "I have three. You can borrow one", I jumped at the chance to experiment with ice cream making at home. Drool.

Sure enough, the next day she showed up with machine in tow and not one, but two canisters. My boss doesn't do things in a small way. She likes to go all out. She's my kinda of gal! So, I happily lugged the ice cream maker home and told N that we'd be making ice cream over the weekend. He didn't argue. The man loves ice cream just as much as I do.

Our experiment consisted of Mexican chocolate ice cream and a classic vanilla ice cream. For the vanilla ice cream we used the recipe found in the owner's manual/recipe book, but for the chocolate ice cream we went with a variation of Rick Bayless's Mexican Chocolate Chile Ice Cream.

I made a minor ingredient substitute and left out the chile and liquer, but followed the general recipe.

What we ended up with was a smooth, slightly sweet chocolate ice cream with hints of cinnamon. It was divine and it's all gone.

I highly recommend you try it out if you have an ice cream maker. We'll be making this again and I'm sure I'll make some slight changes. One things for sure....I love it!

Mexican Chocolate Ice Cream

Recipe adapted from Rick Bayless: Mexico - One Plate at a Time

Ingredients

1 1/3 cups whole milk
2 ounces Mexican chocolate, chopped into small pieces
3 ounces semi-sweet chocolate
4 egg yolks
½ cup sugar
1 1/3 cups heavy cream
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla

Directions

1. In a small sauce pan add whole milk, Mexican chocolate and the semi-sweet chocolate, and heat over medium until steaming (but not boiling). You want to just melt the chocolate. Cover and set aside

2. Set up a double boiler. Set up a 4-quart saucepan, filled halfway with water, into which you can nestle a 3-quart stainless steel bowl. Bring the pot of water to a boil over high heat while you’re preparing the custard base.

3. Cook the base. In the 3-quart stainless steel bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and sugar until thoroughly combined, then whisk in the chocolate mixture. Reduce the temperature under the pot of boiling water to maintain a gentle simmer. Set the bowl of custard base over the simmering water and whisk frequently, scraping down the sides of the bowl regularly with a rubber spatula, until the mixture thickens noticeably, about 5 minutes. You can test the doneness of the custard by dipping a wooden spoon into the custard, then running your finger through the custard: if the line holds clearly, the custard has thickened sufficiently.

4. Fill a large bowl halfway with ice. Nestle a smaller bowl into the ice and pour the custard through a fine-mesh strainer into the bowl in the ice bath. Whisk the mixture until it is completely cool. Refrigerate if not using immediately.

5. Finishing the base, freezing the ice cream. Stir the heavy cream and vanilla into the base. Freeze in an ice cream freezer according to the manufacturer’s directions. If you like soft serve you can have it as soon as it's churning in the ice cream freezer, but for a firmer texture place in freezer for at least 2 hours.