Apparently, Jeni is something of an ice cream maverick, forgoing the traditional use of egg yolks in the ice cream base. Instead, she recommends using cornstarch to make the ice cream smooth and creamy. I'm going to try an egg-based ice cream for my next try, just for comparison's sake, but this ice cream really had an excellent mouthfeel. I'm so glad to be able to expand my repertoire to ice creams, sorbets, and gelati, but dang, ice cream takes some work and a lot of waiting!
The first thing I did was wash the new ice cream maker's components, then place the bowl of the ice cream maker in the freezer. I let it stay in there for about 14-16 hours, making sure it was completely frozen. I also froze the paddle and the top about an hour before I mixed the ice cream. The evening before I wanted to have actual ice cream to eat, I made the ice cream base.
The first step for the base is to mix up cornstarch and a little milk together, setting it aside.
Then, boil the bejeezus out of the milk, cream, sugar, corn syrup, and salt. What I wasn't prepared for was how much the milk would bubble up. I had to take it off the heat several times in order to prevent the milk from boiling over and splattering all over the oven. Next time, I'll use a bigger pot!
I stirred in the cornstarch and milk mixture, cooking it down even more.
After that, things moved pretty quickly. I whisked a little milk and some cream cheese together and then whisked that into the boiled milk and cream. I set that aside to cool a bit and then boiled cocoa, coffee, and sugar together, stirring in some dark chocolate. This got stirred into the boiled milk and then I placed it all in a gallon-sized freezer bag, cooling it quickly in an ice bath before putting it in the fridge to cool overnight. I guess the ice bath was really unnecessary, because the ice cream base chilled in the fridge for several hours.
Keeping everything super-cold is a big deal. Every ice cream recipe I read stressed this point, so I will also stress it. Keep ice cream base and all ice cream maker components as cold as possible until you actually start making the ice cream.
I poured the base into my new ice cream maker, and processed it for about 25 minutes.
When the ice cream started to pull away from the sides of the bowl and it began to look ice cream-like, I turned off the ice cream maker and poured it into a container. I guess we could have eaten the ice cream right after it had finished churning, but I wanted a harder ice cream, so I let it chill (hah!) in the freezer for a couple of hours.
It's hard to get a good shot of the ice cream, but it was pretty good. Definitely better than store-bought ice cream, thank goodness. I'd hate to have spent all that time (and money on ingredients!) just to taste it and find it the same as Breyer's.
Jeni's Darkest Chocolate Ice Cream
(makes about 1 quart)
from Jeni Britton Bauer via Saveur
Freeze all ice cream maker components for several hours, according to your maker's directions.
Begin by making the ice cream base. In a small bowl, stir 4 tsp cornstarch and 1/4 cup (whole) milk. Set aside. In a large pot, stir 1 3/4 cup milk, 1 cup heavy cream, 1/2 cup sugar, 2 tbsp light corn syrup, and 1/4 tsp salt. Bring this milk and cream mixture to a boil, keeping it at a boil for 4 minutes. Stir in the cornstarch and milk mixture, boiling the milk for another 2-3 minutes as the milk thickens.
Take the milk mixture off the stove. In a small bowl, mix 1/4 cup of the hot milk and 3 tbsp cream cheese together. Stir this into the rest of the hot milk.
While the milk boils, bring 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa, 1/2 cup brewed coffee, and 1/2 cup sugar to a boil in a small pot. Take it off the stove and stir in 1 1/2 oz bittersweet (or very dark) chocolate.
Stir the chocolate mixture into the milk. Pour it into a gallon-sized bag and chill it for several hours, preferably overnight. Alternatively, you could immerse the bag into an ice water bath to chill it more quickly, decreasing the time it takes for the base to chill.
When the base is thoroughly chilled, place it in the ice cream maker and process according to the maker's instructions.
2 comments:
That was such a good gift!
It really was!
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