Chocolate Ice Cream

It's summer and ice cream is the star of the season. There have been so many great ice cream recipes in blogsphere that I've been inspired.

I've been working on making ice cream all summer -- what a chore :) -- and haven't been successful with my recipe testing, except for the strawberry frozen yogurt I made. It was delicious and more healthy than ice cream but I was really wanting something more creamy.

I just saw the two ingredient ice cream recipe that Michelle at Brown Eyed Baker posted. It was very similar to the recipe I made last week.

My sister the cook sent me this recipe last week. She knew that I've been looking for easy ice cream recipes that don't require an ice cream machine and she thought this recipe was one I would like.

The recipe was so easy that I couldn't wait to try it. I made it the same day she sent it to me since I had all the ingredients. It would be setting up in the freezer all day while I was doing may chores and babysitting.

I couldn't wait to get home to see how the ice cream set up.   It was ready for tasting after about 6 1/2 hours and when I scooped it into the dish and tasted it I was so pleasantly surprised that the recipe actually worked.

Easy Chocolate Ice Cream
(Adapted from America's Test Kitchen)
Ingredients

• 1 tsp. instant coffee granules
• 1 TBLS. hot water
• 1/2 cup bittersweet chocolate chips (60% cacao or higher)
• 1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
• pinch salt

• 1 1/4 cups heavy cream - whipped

Preparation:

1. For the Base: Combine the coffee granules with hot water in small bowl and let sit until coffee granules dissolve. Add to a medium bowl the chopped chocolate, sweetened condensed milk and coffee mixture and microwave for 10 second intervals, stirring the mixture after each interval. This should take approximately 1 minute, depending on your microwave. When chocolate is melted next stir in the vanilla. Set this aside for about 15 minutes until it cools.
2. Pour the heavy cream into a chilled bowl and whip to soft peaks.
3. When the chocolate is cool fold in 1/3 of the whipped cream gently then fold in the remaining whipped cream to the chocolate mixture until all is well blended.
4. Pour into an air tight freezer container until firm - approximately 6 hours. 

I followed this recipe exactly as written and it came out perfect.  It was creamy and very much an ice cream texture and it didn't have an ice crystal crunch.

Here are a few of my ice cream tips.
 
I'm still on the hunt for a lower calorie ice cream so today I made a peach ice cream.  I replaced the whipped heavy cream with low fat half and half.  I just stirred it into the peach base and then put it in the freezer.  It took a little longer than 6 hours to freeze, but it too is creamy and very much an ice cream.

One thing I have been doing is using my fresh summer fruits in the ice cream base but I found that the chunky fruit pieces became frozen chunks in the ice cream.  The fruits should be put into a blender or chopped very fine so you are not crunching on iced fruit.

I think I'm going to be happy making home-made ice cream without a custard base that will be a little lower in calories.  I can save those calories for when I'm out and have no other choice but to order a rich, creamy and delicious gourmet ice cream treat.


Mangia!
Winelady Cooks


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